Stirling, Aberdeen, and some of the Castle Trail

As wonderful as Dave’s hospitality was, Em and I needed to move on or we would never have seen anything else in the country. Dave was kind enough to drop us off at the car rental place (or as close as he could since there was construction that was making the roads a little hard to navigate), where we were given a luxury sedan BMW when we paid for a Corsa crappy little car. The associate told us that they upgrade most people for free since if they didn’t, the nicer cars would never get driven.

I’ve never driven anything as nice as this car and was terrified that the upgrade was a terrible idea as I was either going to drive it off a cliff or someone else was going to crash into me and then I would owe a year’s salary paying for it. It didn’t help my anxiety either that due to the small roads here there really isn’t much leeway between you and the car in the lane going the other direction (that’s if the roads are even wide enough to accommodate two vehicles at once, which many aren’t). Every time another car came near us, Em would cringe, or squeak, or close her eyes, or all of the above at the same time. It really instilled confidence in my driving.

So the dynamic duo headed out to terrorize the drivers of Scotland. We were headed to Aberdeen to meet Hasam, another kind soul willing to host us for a few nights and let us use his home as a home base for the Northeastern region of the country. On our way to Aberdeen, we stopped at Stirling Castle. This is one of the most important castles in the entire country, both historically and architecturally. It is perched atop Castle Hill and has three sides made up of steep slopes, giving it a good defensive position. There were at least eight different attempts over the Castle’s history of various groups trying to lay siege to its walls.

The buildings at Stirling Castle are all in different styles and were built at different times between the 13^th and 19^th centuries. One of the most famous is the Great Hall. “Described as ‘the grandest secular building erected in Scotland in the late Middle Ages’, it represents the first example of Renaissance-influenced royal architecture in that country”.  In addition, it is painted an awful yellow color which is called “King’s Gold” and would have been the same color that the rest of the castle walls supported centuries ago.

Aberdeen, the third most populous city in Scotland, translates into “at the confluence of the rivers Dee and Don”, the two most important rivers in the country. The city is situation between the two and has a long history as a thriving fishing area. In recent years, “black gold” has been found and provided an addition influx of income for the economy.

Em and I spent our first day in the region exploring the city itself. We took a bus downtown (to avoid parking costs and traffic) and walked all over the place. The city is an interesting mix between Victorian style buildings and modern style shops. The main downtown area is Union Street and mostly a large business and retail center. Off of Union Street one can find smaller churches (called kirks), two universities, and many little shops. It’s a quaint area, but we were starting to feel that this trip was turning a little too cosmopolitan and so we set out for Footdee.

Footdee is an area of Aberdeen known locally as “Fittie. It is an old fishing village that was one of the first examples of a planned housing development. It was laid out in 1809 by John Smith who called the area “Fish Town”. Locals erroneously keep referring to the area as Footdee (an area close to Fish Town, but not the same) and eventually it stuck.

The town originally consisted of 28 single-story thatched houses surrounding a northern and a southern square. Over time, second stories were added to the homes, an additional square was added, and to the communal grass areas in the center of each square, a “tarry shed” was added for each dwelling. The homes were sold to families starting in the 1880s and the town has since turned into an artist type community with locals decorating their yards in very creative ways. It’s a super cute community and located on the peninsula, making it a quiet and lovely area that is only two miles from the center of town.

On the other side of the peninsula from Footdee (but requiring a long walk, multiple buses, or a short swim) is the Royal Burgh of Torry and the Torry Battery. Torry is an area of Aberdeen that has its own history dating from its inception in 1495 until it was incorporated into Aberdeen in 1891 with the completion of the Victorian Bridge that connected them. At the edge of town, sitting above the water, is the remains of the battery, which was used to defend the city in both World Wars, but now lies in ruin. There is also believed to be an older archaeological settlement in Torry that has yet to be explored.

Our second day in the region we took our luxury Beemer and went in search of castles, as this area is famous for its Castle Trail. Due to this country’s weird hours (everything is opening between 10 am and 5pm and very rarely outside those set times) regardless of its high latitude (meaning that it’s light out during the summer until 1 or 2 am – might be even later but I’m usually asleep before then), the small roads (with slow speed limits), and the space between one location and another, it is hard to see more than two or three castles in a day. Even seeing three is a bit of a stretch, especially since they all seem to have extensive and exquisite gardens and grounds attached to them that you might want to explore.

For our first day we attempted to visit Dunnottar Castle, Crathes Castle, and Drum Castle. In actuality, we went to Dunnottar, Crathes, Craigievar, and Fraser, but didn’t get to see the inside of either Dunnottar or Fraser.

Dunnottar Castle is a ruined medieval fortress located on a rocky outcrop near the town of Stonehaven (where we wandered a bit and had breakfast. Em ordered a cup of coffee and they gave it to her from a machine where you press a button. The button only poured a half a cup and that’s what the girl gave Em. This caused Em to complain, the girl to look confused, and us to laugh that apparently it’s too hard to just press the button again to get the full cup. When we got coffee the new few times, Em always asked whether they filled the cup to the top. She received a few looks). The fortress is best known for having hidden the Honours of Scotland, the Scottish crown jewels, from Oliver Cromwell’s invading army in the 17^th century.

The ruins are atop a rock that is surrounded by water and requires one to walk down a 50m cliff (there is a stairwell) and back up the other side to access them. We walked the path and looked at the few buildings that were visible before the pay station and then decided that we were too cheap to actually pay to get inside (yes we are that bad).

From Dunnottar to the region of Banchory we headed to see Crathes Castle. I wanted to go to Drum Castle, which is 6 miles from Crathes, but Em won out. The castle was built in the 16^th century and was held by the Burnett of Leys family for more than 400 years before becoming part of the National Trust for Scotland. It is of traditional style for that era with long smooth sides on the lower levels and crenulated walls and turrets on the upper levels. You go up winding staircases with rooms jutting off, creating an illusion that it’s bigger on the inside (kudos to the nerds that get the reference).

The castle grounds are over 500 acres, including a 4 acre walled garden that even has a grass croquet court on the higher terrace. Crathes Castle also has an adventure tree-top park on the grounds in addition to the castle itself and famous gardens, but Em lost interest (read as was scared) when she realized that the tree top playground was a series of walkways and ziplines (I really wanted to go).

The lady at the admissions office convinced us that it was better to buy a three-day pass than admission to each castle individually, but the pass was only good for specific castles/gardens/monuments/etc. Since it appeared that there were enough that we wanted to see to make the pass worth it (really if you saw three castles in three days than you already recouped your expense, so if you saw more, it was a deal). Drum Castle was on the list of approved Castles, as was a place called Craigievar Castle. Thinking that we had plenty of time to go to Craigievar and then come back to Drum (since it was on the way back to Aberdeen), we set out for the former. This turned out to be the wrong move as Drum closed before Craigievar and therefore we weren’t able to see it. It’s okay though because we were able to see the castle that it is believed Walk Disney modeled his castle off of.

Craigievar is located near Alford and is a pink colored (what is wrong with people?) harled style castle that was first built (the lower half) by the Mortimer family. They then ran out of money and had to sell the castle to the merchant Willian Forbes, who finished the castle between the years 1610 and 1626. The multiple turrets, gargoyles, and high corbelling work to create a classic fairytale appearance that lends to the belief that this is the Walk Disney castle seen at the beginning our all their films.

Our tour of this castle ended at about 3:45 pm and so we knew we didn’t have enough time to race back to Drum and asked the tour guide if there was another castle within a 20 minute drive (most castles have their last admittance between 4:15 and 4:30 pm). We were told to head to Fraser Castle.  Plugging the information into our trusty GPS, we headed out only to be led astray. The GPS sent us to somewhere close, but not accurate and by the time we reached our final destination we were ten minutes late for last call. We tried to using sad puppy dog eyes, but to no avail, they wouldn’t let us in. So we walked the grounds and took pictures of the exterior.

Fraser Castle is considered to be one of the “Great Castles of Mar” and to have the most elaborate Z-plan design of all the castles. It is similar in design to Crathes and Craigievar and believed to have been designed and built by the same family of masons, the Bell family. I would have loved to have seen the inside, but the outside and the grounds (including a children’s park with interesting wooden artifacts) made the trip worth it.

Day three had us leaving Aberdeen and setting out for Inverness. Along the way we visited Balmoral Castle, the Royal Lochnargar Distillery, and Braemar Castle.

Balmoral Castle is one of the British Royal Family’s official residences while in Scotland. The estate was purchased by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1848. They were supposed to go to Blair Castle, but due to the rain, the Queen’s physician thought she should go somewhere drier and warmer, thus Balmoral. Upon visiting, the Queen and Prince feel in love and purchased the lease.  Successive generations have loved the place just as much and they routinely spend about a third of the year (autumn) at the estate. Your entrance fee gets you an audio tour and access to the grounds, the gardens, and entrance to the main hall in the actual Castle itself.

Neighboring the Balmoral Castle estate is the Royal Lochnargar Distillery. The “Royal” was added to the name of the distillery when it earned a Royal Warrant (meaning that they have sold goods, in this case whiskey, to the royal family for a minimum of five years) in 1848 when John Begg (the then owner) invited Prince Albert to visit the distillery. To Begg’s astonishment, his neighbor and family arrived the next day, sampled the wares, and decided that they would buy from them. Every year, the best barrels of whiskey are put aside to be sold to the royal family. Most people might have tried this whiskey if they’ve ever had Johnnie Walker’s blue or black labels.

The last Castle for the day, and the region, that we visited was Braemar Castle. This is the only community owned and run castle. It is a five story L-pan castle that has the remnants of a star-shaped outer defense wall. We arrive just in time for the last guided tour (the only way to see the castle) of the day (it was just us and the guide). This is probably the only castle where the let you take pictures inside (all the ones owned by the Scottish Trust won’t let you).

At one point in the Castle’s history it was used as war barracks (like many our castles) and there is graffiti in the window sills where soldiers carved their names. In later times, one of the Women of the House had a fascination with pink and therefore many of the rooms and articles inside them are of awful color schemes. The castle is also purported to be haunted by five different ghosts: the ghost of John Farquharson, the Black Colonel (the man that actually conquered the castle during one siege); a young newlywed woman that committed suicide on the premise believing her husband had abandoned her (she appears to newlyweds), a monk that guards a sacred area on the grounds, a piper, and a young baby that was reported to have been murdered in the castle. Em and I unfortunately can’t verify any of these sighting.

And with that, I believe this entry is long enough. Tune in for the next entry: Inverness and the Path to the Isle of Skye.