walkwithdinosaurs: AA BODY WAS BRA' IN AIBERDEENSHIRE

Day 1 Monday 25th April 2022

After a lang, lang delay, we finally managed to get away for our much anticipated getaway to Newton House in the middle of rural Aiberdeenshire.

Afore we got to Newton House, we had a roon o' golf to play and we were going to play that roon at Oldmeldrum golf club.

Oldmeldrum, the village, has a population of a little over 2000, but it makes up for that with some surprising history. There was a battle here in 1308, which we will come to later.

It has one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland - Glen Garioch, built in 1797. It was also a centre of the hosiery trade in the 18th Century. The annual Meldrum Games started in 1930 to raise funds to provide cocoa for local children! Yep, cocoa.

Famous people from Oldmeldrum include George Chrystal, a mathematician known for his algebra books, and the study of waves in large inland bodies of water. Hud me back, I hear you say, but I bet most of you didn't know that these waves were called seiche. If you did, well done.

Then there was Douglas Scott Falconer, a geneticist, who introduced the concept of liability threshold models into human disease and trait studies. Don't ask. If you really want to know, look it up and tell me, because I couldn't understand it!

What about William Forsyth, a botanist, after whom Forsythia is named. He was also an ancestor of Bruce Forsyth, so he has a lot to answer for.

Perhaps the best of them all was Sir Patrick Manson, who was the founding father of tropical medicine. What got him into that field was tracking down the cause of a particular disease that had infected his gardener. He did that by dissecting mosquitoes that had sooked the gardener's blood! He said that he would not easily forget the first mosquito that he dissected. I can understand that.

Anyway, we were not here for mosquitoes. We were here for soup and sandwiches.

There was a wee boy waiting to welcome us. His shoes were a little too big and he had them on the wrong feet, but he was keen.

There was also a sea piet nesting on the roof of the clubhouse, which was a bit unusual - gives a whole new meaning to a birdie. You might know it better as an oystercatcher, but we are in fairly, fairly country noo, ye ken?

Before we could sit down to luncheon, Jimmy had an unfortunate accident in the toilet.

Happily, Jacque was on hand to clean it up for him.

Lunch was exactly what we all needed, before we took to the course, or to the shops for those unwilling to submit themselves to the tyranny of little balls.

Off we went, under lowering skies, but nary a drop of rain fell.

Robin, displaying fine form, whilst Hugh and Jimmy look on admiringly.

Me, displaying uncharacteristic accuracy with my tee shot at the third!

Robin, displaying exceptional balance for a Sumo sand shot stance

Up and out!

Hugh, Jimmy and Robin at the Groaner - the 14th hole.

One of the historical things about this part of the world is that all the land was once owned by the 3rd Earl of Buchan. He was better known as John Comyn, who was, of course, a bitter enemy of Robert the Bruce. Well, I said I would get to a battle. The battle of Barra was fought, not in the Western Isles, but near here at a different Barra, between Robert the Bruce's arm and John Comyn, the Earl of Buchan's men in 1380.

The army of Buchan lost, probably deservedly, as they seem to have been completely incompetent. The Earl of Buchan fled the field and, legend has it, lay down by this very stone, groaning and bemoaning the loss of his troops. He was soon chased by Bruce's men and fled to England, dying there not long afterwards.

He is not to be confused with his cousin, also John Comyn, who was murdered by Bruce in Dumfries in 1306. Which explains why our John Comyn didnae like Robert the Bruce.

The feeling was mutual and after the battle Rabbie laid waste to the lands of Buchan. So complete was this plunder, that the locals hated the Buchans and swore fealty to Rab. Not long after, a descendant of Buchan refused the Earldom and the title died out.

No such disasters for us at this hole.

You might think that Maureen and Jacque were watching the golf, but in fact, they were in a brewery, which would always raise a smile.

There were some strange people with odd dogs, which had floored some other guy.

Some stuffed animals with beer - I mean, what can you say?

Jacque wi' a wee dug standing on a sign that looks like it says PEE school. It is a well trained dug that can read and pee in the right place.

Having finished with the golf and the brewery, it was on to Newton House, where we were staying for the next few days.

After a well deserved rest/drink/nap, we had dinner provided by the Smiths, Marwicks and Maureen, none of whom had managed the rest/drink/nap thing with quite the gusto of the rest of us.. Their efforts were very well received as we tucked into a very tasty meal, indeed.

Sharon, Hugh, Susan and Sue were really good at the synchronised drinking game.

Then it was golf prize time.

Sharon won the lady's prize - well done to her.

Jimmy won a peck on the cheek.

For the gentlemen, Hugh was awarded the runner's up prize. There was no peck on the cheek this time.

I cannot gloss over the fact that I won the first prize however much I would want to downplay such a magnificent effort. I am sure it was largely down to the wonderful drive to within a few inches of the hole rather than an outrageously high handicap.

We all retired to the lounge for an after dinner drink and some chat, before a fairly early night following a full and exciting day.

Day 2 Tuesday 26th April 2022

We must all have had a good sleep, because we were all up early for breakfast! That might have been a good idea, as a late arrival might have resulted in completely cremated bacon!

If I had been a bit quicker I would have captured the flames licking a good deal higher and Maureen would have looked a bit more concerned than in this photo!

Away from the drama of the kitchen, it was looking quite tranquil and pleasant outside.

It was also the same from the outside looking in.

It might have looked lovely, but it was a bit on the cool side, especially in the wind, but that didn't stop us heading for Haddo House for a walk. We are a walking group after all.

Before we started out, Sue had a word with her wee man.

Before we got to the house, we could see this obelisk. It is a memorial to Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Gordon, brother of the owner of Haddo House, George Hamilton-Gordon, the 4th Earl of Aberdeen. Alexander was killed at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He was actually the Aide de Camp to Wellington. There is a similar memorial at the battlefield and it is remarkable for being the only British monument to an individual at the site.

Our first stop was this quaint little brick built structure. It had a fairy like quality to it, but it actually had a far bloodier purpose, being the game larder for the big house!

It looks like swallows or house martins were at home here last summer.

Opposite the game larder was the games hall, designed by the 7th laird and containing tennis and badminton courts and space for lectures and amateur dramatics. I liked the sweeping roof quite a lot.

The front elevation of Haddo House.

This really is a splendid example of Palladian Architecture, so called after Andrea Palladio, a 16th Century Italian architect. It was originally designed by William Adam and dates from 1732, although it was considerably refurbished in 1880. It was built for the Gordon family, who later became the Earls of Aberdeen and replaced their earlier house on much the same site that had been burnt down by the dastardly Covenanters.

It is magnificent, is it not?

I just wish some plonker hadn't parked his car by the front door.

Still, no need to dwell on the intricacies of Palladian symmetry and strict rules, when there is a walk to be had. Unknown to us we had just walked across the site of the older house that had been burnt down.

As you might have noticed there is a horrific conflict in Europe just now. One of the side effects of this is that sunflower oil supplies are becoming more and more restricted. Crops such as oilseed rape are likely to become more valuable and there was a lot of it about on the walk. This allowed me to take a number of yellow themed photos just for the fun of it.

In stark contrast to the fields of gold were the scenes of devastation caused when Storm Arwen crashed through the estate in November last year.

Arwen destroyed a forest area in Scotland equivalent in size to the city of Dundee. It is thought 100000 trees were lost at Haddo and it will take well over a generation for the estate to return to the pre-storm appearance.

It wasn't too long until we reached Kelly Lake, which is entirely artificial, having been created in the 1830's by damming the Kelly Burn. This lake and another - the Upper Lake - were used for fishing for trout and sea trout, the latter navigating from the sea to the burn and tributaries.

It was quite a tranquil little spot.

Evidence of the unnatural nature of the lake is this dinky little sluice grille, complete with duck's head top.

More windblown trees by the lakeside.

There are a number of nesting platforms in Kelly Lake, but I have been unable to find out what might be attracted to use these.

A bridge photo!

What we didn't expect to see are decoy ducks on the lake. There are also what appear to be shooting platforms. Again, I cannot find out much about this. There is an East of Scotland Wildfowling club, but their facebook page is private, presumably to stop anti shooting people finding out much about them!

This, however, is a real Greylag Goose.

These are Canada Geese, which seem interested in the platforms. Canada Geese have been known to nest in trees and they certainly use elevated land for nesting, so as to look out for predators. Another interesting thing about Canada Geese is that they shouldn't be here at all. They are Canadian and were introduced to Britain in the mid 17th Century at St James's Park in London. They do migrate within Europe and the main Scottish resident population is to be found in Dumfries and Galloway.

From left to right, these are a female Tufted Duck, a Coot and then the male Tuftie.

Sweetie time takes precedence over bird watching.

Devastated woodland was all around.

However, there were encouraging signs, such as these emerging Horse Chestnut leaves.

How could you not notice that this was a notice? Did it really need to say that it was a notice for us to notice it?

We were now at the Upper Lake. I had previously written that it was artificial and used for fishing. I'm sure you all remember that. The Upper lake was also used as a source of ice in the winter and the blocks of ice were transported by horse and cart to the ice house in the woods near Haddo House until someone invented freezers!

In fact, that someone was an American Jacob Perkins, who was working in London in 1834. However, his system was a commercial failure, but his principals are still in use today. Another pioneer was Fred Wolf, another American. His model was also a flop, but at the same time he invented the ice cube tray and we all have one of these!

This is the Upper L:ake, completely ice free.

There are a series of metal rails crossing the Kelly burn flowing out of the lake. These have the effect of slowing water from the lake and maintaining its level. They form a barrier to migratory fish, so they have been modified to have pools on the lower side. This allows sea trout to use these pools to generate speed allowing them to jump over the rail.

Further along the lake shore we found a pair of Shelduck resting on the shore.

From Aberdeenshire to the Golden Gates, but not San Francisco!

These gates were built by the 4th Earl in 1847 across part of the Scots Mile, along which we were going to walk to a lunch stop.

The inside of the gates has a cast iron coat of arms, which has the standard motto of Scotland - No-one provokes me with impunity. Below that is, a little more oddly, the Latin for Not too much. Is this a reference to how much I can be provoked, or how much water I might take in my whisky. I dinnae ken.

After a look at the gates we set off up the hill along part of the Scots Mile. Apparently Scots miles were always longer than their English counterparts by about 200 yards. I don't know why that should be, but it held true until the 1700's, when the Union of Parliaments in 1707 saw the English mile introduced. The old mile was still in use until the end of the Century. It is still true today, that if you give the English government an inch, they'll take a mile.

In fact, our inches (and feet and yards) were also longer than the English equivalents, as I'm sure our women are happy to attest.

At the end of the hill and one end of the mile, there is a huge urn, where we sat down for lunch. The urn and the nearby deer were erected in 1848 by the 4th Earl to commemorate his first wife and three daughters, who all died of tuberculosis.

The part of the inscription reading HAUD IMMEMOR means Never Forgotten.

Notwithstanding the poignancy of the urn, we stopped for a roll and juice. Jimmy even did a wee jig.

We didn't stick to one side, we were aa aroon' the urn.

After lunch, it was time to get to the other end of the mile, which was at the house and gardens.

To get to the other end, we had to pass by the two deer. Now, an urn for his wife and a deer for two daughters, I can understand, but what about the third daughter. Did she not deserve a deer of her own. Was she too young, perhaps? Who knows?

The statues are representations of Fallow deer. Fallow stags have quite large palmate antlers. The species is not native to Britain, having been introduced by the Normans for hunting. They are actually relatively rare in the north of Scotland.

Approaching the house along the mile and heading to the formal gardens.

The house is typical of the time, in that the main entrance (the front door) was on the opposite elevation, where the great staircase allowed for a grand entrance into a large hall.

The principal rooms, however, were arranged to this elevation, to take advantage of a large private formal garden and view.

The house through the daffies.

As is often the way with stately homes, there was a dog cemetery, although this one was arranged among the trees lining the approach to the house.

This one was for Barney, who died in 1949 aged 10.

Here we all are on the steps, after a nice couple stopped and the man took a photo of everyone, including me.

The house and the formal gardens, which need a bit of TLC, I think.

The most notable resident of the house was probably the 4th Earl. He was George Hamilton-Gordon, Earl Aberdeen and Prime Minister from 1852 to 1855.

The most numerous residents were probably the expectant mothers of Glasgow, who were evacuated during the Second World War. It is thought some 1200 babies were born there when it functioned as a maternity hospital.

Haddo was also the first great house ever to be advertised as open to the public for one day in 1833. Nearly one hundred years later it was passed to the National Trust for Scotland.

There was an interesting detail above some windows, which looks like an iron decoration, which I've never seen before, but I cannot find out any more about this.

There was a dinky wee side garden that we had a look around, especially at the sundial.

It is a late 19th Century sundial, with a circular marble shaft and lions carved in relief around the base along with an open spherical copper dial and gnomon.

I never noticed any of that.

The Gordon flag flying above the House, refers to the legend of the first of the Gordons saving a king from certain death at the tusks of a wild boar. This was probably one of the early Norman kings, although there is some possibility that the family originally came from the Scottish Borders.

Perhaps it was also fitting , that there appeared to be a boar in the gardens at the end of the walk.

From the garden, it was but a short step back to the cars after a really interesting walk.

Then it was back to Newton House for rest, drinks and dinner prepared by the Pollocks and the Donaldsons, which was all very good.

After more games, it was time for bed.

Day 3 Wednesday 27th April 2022

Breakfast was a leisurely affair - Scrambled eggs and flame free bacon. Then it was off for another fine walk. We had a short drive and then parked up next to the River Ythan. The Ythan is an important salmon and sea trout fishing river. The name is not Gaelic, but derives from early Brittonic language and is quite likely to be Pictish in origin.

There is a huge amount of good arable land here and the area has been settled since prehistoric times. Indeed, only a few hundred yards from where we parked there was found a significant scatter of microliths. These are chippings of stone indicating that large numbers of tools were being made during stone age times.

We were soon in the swing of walking - in fact some of us were just swinging.

Happily, no damage was done to trees or to people and we could carry on.

As the river is important for fish, control of invasive species takes place. Through the branches you can see a mink trap. These are placed by the River Ythan Trust to try and eradicate this voracious predator.

We were heading into woodland, in fact we would soon be reaching one of the last remaining areas of ancient woodland in Aberdeenshire.

So, some wildlife was to be expected - here's a buzzard.

Here's a grey plover. Oh, no it is a grey glove.

This is, I think, a dunnock. Certainly the choice of a young spruce tree as a singing spot is quite characteristic of the species. It is a bit difficult to be sure when the photo is taken against the sky light. We are lucky to catch this one on the perch as they are prolific copulators, mating up to 100 times a day!

These wood anemone are an indicator that we are now in an ancient woodland. They flower early to take advantage of the lack of tree canopy as they are quite slow growing, spreading by underground rhizomes rather than seeding.

It was beginning to get a bit warm in the sun.

By now we were standing near to the Castle of Gight.

However, before we went a bit closer, we managed a group photo in front of the blooming gorse.

This stone indicates that the castle was, at one time, part of the Haddo House Estate.

Before that, however, the castle was in the ownership of the Gordons of Gight and it dates from the mid to late 16th Century. It is actually one of four castles of similar design and date in this part of the country.

The last of the original Gordon family to occupy the castle was Catherine Gordon Byron, who was the mother of the famous poet, Lord Byron. Lord Byron was not born at the castle as Catherine had to sell it to pay of the debts of her husband Mad Jack Byron. He was a bit of a lad and had accumulated significant gambling debts. Catherine was his second wife and he is reputed to have married her solely for her fortune.

The castle was sold for £18500 to Catherine's kinsman, George Gordon, the Earl of Aberdeen. The Earl gave it to his son, George Gordon, Lord Haddo. Hence the stone with HH inscribed on it. (I hope you're keeping up with all the George Gordons).

Anyway, this last George Gordon died in a riding accident at the age of 27. He had, nevertheless 7 children by then. One of them (Sir John Gordon) was born after his death. Another of his children was Robert Gordon and he had a long lease of Balmoral Castle. Unfortunately, he choked on a fish bone and died in 1847. Prince Albert then bought Balmoral as a present for Queen Victoria.

After George, Lord Haddo had fallen aff his shilt, the castle was abandoned and has remained empty ever since.

It is still in a reasonable nick for its age, but I wouldn't go wandering about in it.

Dave and Jimmy did, though.

There was a huge amount of blackthorn bushes and blossom about. In late autumn, this place is probably crawling with people gathering berries to make sloe gin. The wood is also used to make shillelaghs in Ireland.

Although the castle has been long abandoned, someone has been burying dogs just outside the walls.

Dave seems to be disappointed that we are heading downhill towards the river.

Not for long as we climbed back up to the doocot.

The doocot was associated with the castle, which was very common. Before cattle could be overwintered, pigeons were a significant source of winter meat. The droppings shovelled out of the doocot were used as fertiliser and the eggs were also eaten. The existence of the doocot means the estate was quite large as only the big estates could build them. This was because pigeons eat grain and they don't know which grain belongs to their owner's and which belongs to a neighbour. By allowing only the bigger estates to build them, it was more likely that the pigeons would be eating their owner's grain and not the neighbours.

The stepped course of stone on the wall is known as a rat-course and is designed to prevent rats getting in and eating eggs or young pigeons.

Here is where the pigeons lived.

Not far from the doocot, there was another cottage, but I cannot find out anything about it.

It does have a nice Victorian style chimney, though.

Back on track and it was getting warmer still.

We were walking through hazel woods by now and there are squirrels about.

There were also some fine old beech trees.

It looks like the hazel was coppiced at some point on the past. Hazel lends itself to coppicing. This is where the tree is cut down to the base and vigorous new growth is encouraged. This gives rise to a renewable resource of wood that can be used for a huge variety of purposes. These multi-stemmed trees are typical of old coppiced woodland.

Charlie taking a photo of some water.

Another bridge photo, with the River Ythan running below.

The river is reasonably deep and quite muddy brown in colour. You would expect to see trout rising, but we didn't. It was pleasant enough to sit beside as Jimmy, Dave and Robin went off to see if the path was open or not. When Jimmy and Jacque had visited the walk before it had been closed by fallen trees. Jacque felt that it might still be closed.

Jacque was correct, the path was impassable, so along the riverside we went.

There was a trail of guano down the rocks on the other side of the river. It would appear as if some large bird was roosting or nesting there, but we did not see what it might be.

Lunchtime, on a handy tree trunk.

Others chose to sit or stand. I had chosen to sit, but got stung by nettles as I did so. I don't recall any sympathy.

The view back up from the river to Gight Castle, illustrating why that site might have been chosen. Apparently, the river was navigable to the sea past here.

We had to leave the riverside and make our way through the trees to find the path we needed.

Charlie managed this feat whilst on the phone. I don't know who he was speaking to. Perhaps it was Bear Grylls!

We got to where we needed to be. Looking back we could see that there really was no way through the woods along the original route.

The walking became quite easy and pleasant here in the sunshine.

At least it did until we came across some cows. This did give Pam pause for thought. Indeed, she thought she might have to retrace our steps. Given we were much closer to the end of the walk than the beginning, she might well have been on her own.

In any event, Farmer Dave dealt with the cows and we managed safe passage.

Pam was relieved.

I bet Hugh was too as he would have had to go all the way back with Pam had the cows not been dispersed.

Back across the river again.

We went over this bridge, which is named the Waterloo Bridge. Apparently, it has no historical significance, although flint arrowheads were found here in 1865.They would have had nothing to do with the battle of Waterloo, but they nay have been related to the scatter of microliths that were found near where we had parked the cars.

It was but a short step to the cars and then back to the house via an unannounced stop for Jimmy to buy a newspaper, which confused all of us who were following him home!

It was a lovely afternoon when we got back. Some of us cooked, some sat in the sun and some had a walk to not find Schivas House.

Schivas House has nothing to do with Chivas Regal, the whisky. Chivas brothers founded the whisky brand in 1854. They were two brothers from a family of 14 and had moved to Aberdeen to escape the poverty of their farming life. Whisky made them very rich. When they died, the company passed through a few changes and was ultimately sold out to a couple of employees on the proviso that the business remained under the name of Chivas Brothers.

As the sun went down on that empire, so the sun was shining on us.

Time for a group photo in front of Newton House, our home for these few days.

While everyone was enjoying themselves, the kitchen brigade were hard at it.

After dinner, the sun went down spectacularly behind the wedding venue in the steading opposite the house

Then it was time for bed again.

Day 4 Thursday 28th April 2022

Then it was time for breakfast, a clear up and out for our last bit of walking for the trip.

The three wise men were taking in the view and looking positively relaxed.

Not too long after, it was slightly worrying to see people poring over maps before we had even left the house car park!

It wis a bra' sunny day as we arrived at the car park for Fyvie Castle and grounds. My but we were takin' in some grand hooses on this tour.

Before we could get inside, we had to have a walk around the Loch of Fyvie. This is an artificial loch and was created by General William Gordon, who owned the castle at the end of the 18th Century.

General William Gordon was a bit of a strange chap and an MP. Strange chaps and MPs are not necessarily the same thing, of course.

His attendance at Parliament was sporadic, given his considerable military employment. He was also a Groom of the Bedchamber for George III. This was a reasonably important appointment as it was made directly by the King rather than the Lord Chamberlain. Bedchamber grooms were very close to the King and carried out what are described as intimate duties. Not what you are thinking, but more acting as personal confidants and handing clothes to the Groom of the Body for the King.

Jings, fit an marless lyffe, these royal jobbies lived as they would say in these parts.

Not only did William do all this, he even had time to start a family feud.

William's nephew had decided to raise a regiment for King George, with a view to making his brother, also William, the colonel. The King wouldn't have this as the second Willie had eloped with the married Lady Sarah Bunbury, who it seems the King had a fancy for when he was the Prince of Wales (not much changes in these circles it would seem). The second Willie had abandoned Lady Sarah after she had his child and her husband would not take her back.

The first Willie then wrote to the Kings army chap and said he himself could easily be the colonel and that he had the second Willie's support for such a thing.

The first Willie was made colonel and then appointed all his officers. All this was done without the support of the second Willie, who also thought the officers appointed would undermine his chances of election on Aberdeenshire. So, they fell oot and fell oot they remained.

Anyway, the first Willie's pond was very nice.

There were lots of birds about.

This lovely song thrush for starters.

Lots of Mallards.

A Blue Tit.

A Great Tit.

Cute little Mallard chicks.

Mute swan.

Greylag Goose.

Jackdaw.

Tufted Duck - black and white male and dowdy brown female.

Moorhen.

Doubtless there were many more, but they were either too shy or too quick to photograph.

Clearly all this bucolic stuff had sent Dave into a bit of a reverie.

There was a very nice little boathouse dating from about 1820 and still in occasional use.

It was nice, easy walking in the sunshine.

A group photo from the end of the loch looking back to the car park.

Once we went roon' the bend, we started heading up the road back to the castle and the cars.

There were loads of daffies.

There was also the odd fallen tree.

I know tourists have a bit of trouble with single track roads and passing places, but this is unlikely to help.

Charlie and Maureen counting rings.

We were getting nearer the castle with every step.

The Bluebells were out. These are native bluebells. They can mistaken for the invasive Spanish bluebells. The natives have flowers on one side of the stem of the flower, whereas the Spanish variant has flowers arranged all round the stem.

Almost half the world's bluebells are found in the UK - they are relatively rare in the rest of the world. They also take years to recover from damage, so you should try to avoid walking on them. This is because the leaves cannot photosynthesise. If the leaves are crushed, the flower dies back from lack of food,

The native bluebells also have markedly curved back tips on the petals of the flowers.

Despite the devastation of Storm Arwen, there were lots of signs that nature was undaunted and finding ways to creep back.

At the end of the loch, there was this memorial stone for Cadet Lance Corporal Kaylee McIntosh. My research found that 14 year old Kaylee drowned in 2007 in the Western Isles, whilst on a training exercise with the Army Cadets. She had become trapped under a capsized boat and nobody had realised that she was missing. The Army was censured by the Health and Safety Executive for multiple failures. It appears that the HSE cannot do more than censure the Crown - another agency could have been prosecuted or heavily fined.

The Army officer in charge of the exercise was fined £5000, but the failings would appear to have been institutional as well as personal.

Kaylee came from Fyvie.

I guess the area had some significance for Kaylee and it is easy to see why - it really is spectacular. The grounds and the castle were really looking quite special in the sunshine.

Jimmy and Jacque had arranged a guided tour of the castle for us, so we headed up the drive to find our guide.

We were a bit early and had to wait for few minutes, so some of us had a wee sit down in the sun.

Others did that as well, but apparently were moved to song!

Some of you may be pleased to know that, despite my best efforts, I could not load the whole video, so had to live with a single frame screenshot.

Soon we were shown into the castle. This interesting Arctic tableau was difficult to avoid. i hope it shows a Polar Bear about top attack and eat a seal pup. Any other interpretation would take us into Jimmy and the deer at Mar Lodge territory, and we don't want to revisit that.

There was a pretty impressive fireplace in the entrance hall, built to commemorate the gift of the Fyvie Castle and lands to Henry Preston from King Robert III in 1390. This was because Henry Preston had captured an English knight, Ralph de Percy at the Battle of Otterburn. War at this time was more about capturing important knights rather than annexing territory. The ransom of these knights paid for castles all over both sides of the Scotland/England border. Before King Robert gave the castle to Preston, it had been a royal castle, like many others. In this case it had been King Robert's father Robert II and he had gifted it to his son who became Robert II. He then gave it to his cousin Sir James Lindsay. He was obviously a bit hacked off that the King then gave it to Preston as it took the Prestons nearly 15 years before they took possession!

The armour on either side f the fireplace was a bit odd. This guy was clearly happy at the prospect of a bit of slashing and cleaving.

Whereas, this chap was a bit more Dick Emery in a tin suit.

Off round the castle we went.

The dining room was set for us, but no food appeared.

This is only a small sample of the crockery in the castle. Apparently there are over a thousand plates, saucers, cups, glasses and cutlery in the castle. Entertainment was on a pretty lavish scale, it would seem. Washing the dishes must have been a bit of a nightmare.

As always, it was worth a look up at the ceiling.

There were three taps in the kitchen associated with the dining room ( The real kitchen was elsewhere). One tap was for cold, one for hot and one for spring water. Every home should have one.

We all need a library, too.

The bedroom used by Sir Alexander Seton and his new bride Grizel Leslie. Now, Grizel was the cousin of Sir Alexander's first wife Dame Lilias Drummond. She had failed in her duty to her husband, providing him with 5 daughters and no sons. Lilias was heartboken by Sir Alexander's dalliance with her cousin and left Fyvie to go to her home on Fife, where she, somewhat mysteriously, took ill and died soon after.

When wee Eck married Grizel (not an auspicious name for a wife, I feel) they heard sighing outside the bedroom window. They thought it wind ( I've used that excuse on Sharon often). However, on opening the curtains, they found Lilias' name carved on the windowsill. Spooky, or what? The carving is still there to this day. Very neat carving for a ghost, I think.