sporting facilities and clubs, including football and rugby pitches, an astroturf pitch for hockey, a gym, and a multi-use sports hall. The Meadows is also home to Ellon United football team, the Ellon Rugby Club and Ellon Hockey Club. Media The town has two weekly newspapers: the Ellon Times, published on Thursdays by Angus County Press and the Ellon Advertiser, published on Fridays by Peters of Turriff. Housing Ellon has benefited from the North Sea oil demand, and is one of the main dormitory towns for Aberdeen. It is part of the proposed Energetica corridor of development. The population is expanding as young families seek to escape Aberdeen and move to nearby towns like Ellon, Inverurie and Banchory. During 2006, Ellon ranked as the town with the fourth most rapidly increasing average house prices in Scotland. Transport Ellon is bypassed by the A90 road, which offers convenient access to Aberdeen to the south and Peterhead and Fraserburgh to the north. Other major road links are the A920 west to Oldmeldrum and Huntly, and the A948 north to New Deer. Regular and frequent bus services link Ellon with Aberdeen, Inverurie, Peterhead, Fraserburgh and surrounding towns and villages, serving both the town centre and Ellon Park and Ride at the eastern edge of the town. Ellon railway station was a principal station on the Great North of Scotland Railway line that ran from Aberdeen to Fraserburgh and Peterhead. Due to the Beeching Axe, passenger services were withdrawn on the Formartine and Buchan Railway line in 1965. Freight services continued on the line until 1979 (Fraserburgh only, the Maud-Peterhead section was closed in 1970), at which point the entire line was closed. The former railway line was purchased by Grampian Regional Council in 1981, and is now part of the National Cycling Route network. Due to the population expansion since the North Sea Oil boom, the A90 has become overloaded between Aberdeen, Ellon and Peterhead. The Aberdeen Crossrail project has looked at reopening sections of the former railway, however as of March 2009 this is still unlikely. The Boddam Branch that ran to Boddam via Cruden Bay started at Ellon. This closed in 1945. Notable people Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries (1635–1699), general and rear admiral in Russia, chief advisor to Tsar Peter the Great James Gordon (British Army officer, died 1783), a British Army officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War Rev