This town was about twelve miles inland from the first settlement of the clerics at Aberdour. It was placed on the fertile banks of the river Ugie, sheltered by wooded heights, on one of which it is probable that another rath of the mormaer was placed while the district seems to have been the seat of an abundant population, of which many traces yet remain. The Book of Deer is a memorial of the monastery thus founded by St. Columba and his disciple. It contains the Gospel of St. John complete, and portions of the other three Evangelists, in writing probably of the ninth century, besides a collection of Memoranda of grants hythe Celtic chiefs of Buchan, written in Gaelic at a later time.