Kintore and District Community Council

Meet Moira Moran 

Moira is Chair of Kintore & District Community Council.

Moira was brought up at a farm in Bourtie between Inverurie and Oldmeldrum. 

She went on to train as a psychiatric nurse working in both hospitals and the community in Grampian and South Manchester with a break to live in Norway. 

Moira moved to the Middle East for several years where she worked in office administration. 

On return to Scotland she worked in Marine Insurance and also worked in office management at the Rowett Institute. 

Further to that Moira has worked in IT administration including UK IT Manager for a couple of oil service companies. After being made redundant she took the opportunity to retire. 

She has lived at Thainstone for 45 years and seen many changes in the area, some for the better, some not so good.

Interested in gardening, particularly fruit, foraging and looking after her beloved cats.

Moira joined the Community Council in 2020 as Secretary and is now Chair of Kintore and District Community Council.

You can email Moira at chair.kdcc@gmail.com

 Meet Laura Murrie

Laura moved to Kintore 9 years ago. She fell in love with the town and it's surroundings. Laura has been a volunteer for delivering Kintore Connect magazines for the past few years. 

Laura has work experience in Architectural Technology, Administration and Project Management. In her spare time, she likes to take on DIY and up-cycling projects. Over the past few years, her newest passion has been gardening. 

Having recently joined Kintore Community Council, she is looking forward to getting stuck in and helping. 

 Meet Janine Cracknel

Janine was born in 1975 in a little village in the heart of beautiful Dorset and married her husband Mark in 1998.  Janine and Mark have lived and worked all over the UK including London, Cardiff, Jersey, Durham and Grimsby.  Prior to becoming a full-time mum in 2008, Janine had worked in many customer service and relationship management roles including JPMorgan, Reed Recruitment and Liverpool Victoria.  Janine loves learning and studied at Robert Gordon University recently and achieved a Certificate in Higher Education in Business Management.

The Cracknell family moved to Kintore from Dorset in 2012 when their daughters were 4 years old and 2 years old. Kintore was chosen over other Aberdeenshire towns because of Kintore Primary School and the brilliant additional support needs unit within the school. It was essential to find the right school for both daughters and Kintore matched the family’s requirements.  

Janine has been running a monthly support group for parents and carers of children with additional support needs for the last ten years.  The support group is open to any parent or carer with any additional need, regardless of diagnosis status and offers a non-judgemental supportive environment to share experiences, brainstorm solutions and munch on some home bakes!

Janine is an active member of the Kemnay Academy Parent Council and represents KDCC on the parent council.  Through the KDCC, Janine had the opportunity to work as a polling clerk in recent local and Scottish elections based at Kemnay Public Hall which was rewarding.

Janine loves cooking, long walks along Newburgh beach, listening to political podcasts and family movie nights.

Janine joined the Community Council in October 2020 as an associate member and was elected the first time around as secretary in 2021.

You can email Janine at secretary.kdcc@gmail.com

Meet Rod Smith 

Rod moved to Kintore in 2005 with his soon to be wife and soon settled in to a bustling town especially after the arrival of the daughters which opened their eyes to the great many activities within the town.

Having retired from the Police in 2022, Rod took some time off before setting up his Driving School where he now takes great pleasure in helping the local teens getting behind the wheel and gaining their independence.

He is still not quite sure how he became involved with KDCC but has never regretted it and looks forward to assisting in my way he can to keep Kintore the vibrant and active place that all residents should be proud of.

Meet Alan Milne. 

Alan works offshore as a rope access construction supervisor. 

An important Member of KDCC with a passion for helping others and is an active member of the Kintore Resilience Group. Alan's responsibilities also extend to ensuring that the 7 Community owned AED's are regularly inspected and maintained to make sure they are in good working order when required in an emergency.  Alan is also a Community Coordinator for Inverurie First Responders  with Scottish Ambulance supporting the Garioch Area. 

Meet Ken McEwen.

Throughout his career, Ken McEwen’s focus has been on communications and media. He started with the Press and Journal, became press officer at the Aberdeen City Council, moving to NESDA, before founding his own PR company.

When he moved to Kintore, in 1999, the town was perceived, in some quarters, as simply a “dormitory town” for Aberdeen. Ken saw the web and social media as way to correct this image and project Kintore as the truly vibrant community it is, with a strong history and heritage.

He set up the kintore.org.uk website, followed by the Kintore Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram. After 20 years of running them as a free service to Kintore, ownership was transferred to Kintore and District Community Council in 2021.

Ken served as vice chairman and acting chair of Kintore and District Community Council between 2019 and 2021 – a period which included adapting to the pandemic and switching meetings to online. 

Ken is a trustee with local charity Action Kintore, who run The Bothie youth organisation and are working to bring the Town House back into use for the community.

Meet Eve Lamond

Eve works as an event organiser and an Administration Support .

Moving to Kintore back in 2019.

Eve joined the Kintore & District Community Council in September 2023 after joining one of the KDCC monthly meetings. Eve had come along to personally thank the Community Council for having supporting the local De-fibs as  one of the Community AED's saving the life of her father in law who had been visiting them in Summer 2023.

Meet Angus Cheyne

Angus is a graduate in farm business management with a broad and varied career in agriculture. His experience spans the full agricultural system, from farm work to agronomy. 

After a stint as a potato agronomist for Tesco suppliers, he ventured into new business ideas, developing skills in web marketing. Angus has since become proficient in e-commerce, selling a variety of products including turf, garden supplies, whisky, and food. 

Currently, he is working with a young business to develop their firewood enterprise through a period of rapid growth. 

Having moved to Kingsfield Road just in time for the 2023 floods, Angus was so impressed with the local resilience group that it inspired him to join the community council and "put his shoulder to the wheel".

Meet Dave MacAllan

Dave’s married with a teenage son, and has lived in Kintore for 17 years, having been brought up in Kemnay and Inverurie.

He works in operations, and has been in the energy industry for over 20 years.  Dave originally trained as a quantity surveyor, spending time in Edinburgh and Inverness before returning to the North East. 

Working mostly in an office through the day, Dave loves a project.  

He likes an opportunity to get involved and particularly enjoys practical, outdoorsy activities. 

 The recent ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ initiative, and the brilliant work of the Resilience Group have drawn Dave to join the KDCC and give something back to the village and local community.

Meet Fabio Greatbatch

Originally from Strathdon, and not a resident of Kintore, Fabio started working in the area 5 years ago. 

Fabio is a Sales Consultant at Jim Reid Vehicle Sales & Service based in Kintore, his passion for helping others doesn't just end at work having recently joining Inverurie First Responders with The Scottish Ambulance Service. 

Fabio was inspired to join the KDCC after seeing the commitment from others in the community especially during the floods in 2023. 

 My name is Anne Wels, and I recently moved to Kintore — a place I’ve always felt was my spiritual home. I spent so much time here as a child that I’m fairly sure half the village thought I lived on Kingsfield Road with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Weekends, summer holidays… if there was a chance to escape to Kintore, I was in the car before anyone else had their shoes on.
But my connection to the village goes even further back. Many years ago, the Smiths had the shop in the square — owned by my mum’s stepmother’s family. Mum would come out to work there whenever she was home on leave from the WRENS. My dad, meanwhile, would stay with his sister in the village when he was home from the RAF. Fate clearly had a sense of humour, because the two of them ended up meeting here and becoming a couple. Kintore: matchmaking since before Tinder.
As a nature-loving child, I adored coming here. It offered the same freedom I had visiting my granny in Drumlithie — fields, fresh air, and the kind of adventures that only happen when adults aren’t paying close attention.
My dad used to shoot on John Carnie’s ground, and as an only child, I was often bundled along as his unofficial apprentice. If Mum was working, Dad was in charge of childcare — which meant being hauled out at the crack of dawn to crawl through fields on my belly, waiting for skeins of geese to fly over, or helping keep the rabbit and cushie-doo population from eating the crops. In between all that, Dad taught me about nature, and I loved walking over Tuach Hill with our dog, feeling like the queen of my own wee kingdom.
Of course, life moved on. I grew up, my cousins moved away, and the Crown Hotel and the Torryburn eventually closed their doors. But Kintore never left my heart, and I found myself back here often while my aunt was still alive.
Like many folk in and around Aberdeen, I ended up in the oil industry — a hard and demanding taskmaster if ever there was one. I worked in service, marine logistics, and marine planning, and life was busy. I married (twice), and let’s just say I didn’t exactly excel at either attempt. So I decided to give matrimony a rest and focus on looking after my parents and building my career.
I worked with drilling fluids companies IDF and MI Swaco before changing direction into logistics. I became the first female quayside supervisor in Aberdeen while working for Petersons and ASCO, did a secondment to Greenland, worked for Apache, then became the first female vessel traffic assistant in Aberdeen Harbour Port Control, before moving on to become a marine controller for Conoco Phillips.
I loved the work — the crews, the quayside teams, the organised chaos of it all. But after losing four family members in a short space of time and preparing their services, something shifted. Almost overnight, I knew I wanted to become a Civil Celebrant, especially conducting funerals. So in 2018, I turned my back on the oil industry and stepped into the work I now feel truly called to do.
I’ve always been taught to look out for others. I served as Chair of the Kincorth Community Council for two years, as well as Secretary, then Chair of the Kincorth Community Centre Hub. Community has always mattered to me.
So when my current home came on the market, I came to see it — and instantly knew I’d come home. Once settled, I wanted to give back again, so I joined the community council… and here I am.
I’m a confident organiser and public speaker. In my spare time, I’ve volunteered at the Aberdeen Seafarers Centre, trained as a Ship Welfare Visitor, and helped out at the local sheltered housing complex. And animals — well, I’m a complete pushover for anything with big “love me” eyes, especially the rescued ones. They see me coming a mile off!