Huntly Castle

The last stop of the day was to Huntly Castle. Unfortunetly the Lonely Planet guide bood was wrong and we were too late for open hours of the Castle. Our only view was from the entrance but it looks like a cool castle. I'll have to go back at some point when it's open.


Architecturally the L plan castle consists of a well-preserved five-story tower with an adjoining great hall and supporting buildings. Areas of the original ornate facade and interior stonework remain. A mound in the grounds of the castle is all that remains of an earlier 12th century motte. Originally named Strathbogie, the castle was granted to Sir Adam Gordon of Huntly in the 14th century. King Robert the Bruce was a guest of the castle in 1307 prior to his defeat of the Earl of Buchan.

It was fired in 1452 by the Earl of Moray then extensively rebuilt by the first Earl of Huntly. In 1449 the king was at war with the powerful Earls of Douglas. The Gordons stood on the king’s side and, with their men involved in the south of the country, the Earl of Moray, a relation and ally of the Douglases, took the opportunity to sack the Gordon lands, setting Huntly Castle ablaze. The Gordons returned and quickly destroyed their enemies. Although the castle was burned to the ground, a grander castle was built in its place. In 1496, the pretender to the English throne Perkin Warbeck was married to Catherine Gordon at Huntly Castle, an act witnessed by King James IV of Scotland.

Wings were added to the castle in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1640 it was occupied by the Scottish Covenantor army under Major-General Robert Monro (d. 1680). The parson of Rothiemay tells us how the house ‘was preserved from being rifled or defaced, except some emblems and imagery, which looked somewhat popish and superstitious lycke; and therefore, by the industry of one captain James Wallace (one of Munro’s foote captaines) were hewd and brocke doune off the frontispiece of the house; but all the rest of the frontispiece containing Huntly’s scutcheon, etc, was left untouched, as it stands to this daye’.

Captured in October 1644, the castle was briefly held by James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose against the Duke of Argyll. In 1647 it was gallantly defended against General David Leslie by Lord Charles Gordon, but its 'Irish' garrison was starved into surrender. Savage treatment was meted out, for the men were hanged and their officers beheaded. In December of the same year Huntly himself was captured and on his way to execution at Edinburgh was detained, by a refinement of cruelty, in his own mansion. His escort were shot against its walls. In 1650 Charles II visited briefly on his way to the Battle of Worcester, defeat and exile. The Civil War brought an end to the Gordon of Huntly family's long occupation of the castle.

In the early eighteenth century it was already in decay and providing material for predatory house builders in the village. In 1746, during the Jacobite Risings, it was occupied by British Government troops. Thereafter, it became a common quarry until a groundswell of antiquarian sentiment in the 19th Century came to the rescue of the noble pile.

Huntly Castle remained under the ownership of the Clan Gordon until 1923. Today, the remains of the castle are cared for by Historic Scotland.


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The little village of Pennan Scotland

Pennan is a small village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland consisting of a small harbour and a single row of homes, including a hotel. It is located on the north-facing coast and is approximately one hour's drive from Aberdeen.

Pennan seems to have come into existence as a fishing village in the 18th century. Until the 1930s, the population of the village seems to have come under three main surnames - Watt, Gatt and West. The people of Pennan were dependent on the sea. Most families had small boats for their own personal use. Where the men would catch the fish, it was usually down to the women and children to try and sell it to clients in the country. In the last 50 years, most of the native families have moved out and most of the houses have been bought as holiday homes. Pennan became famous in the 1980s for being used as one of the main locations for the film Local Hero, and representing the fictional village of Ferness. Film enthusiasts have come from all over the world to make a phone call in the red telephone box which featured in the film. The phone box was in fact originally put there only as a prop for the film, and then removed, but as a result of public demand a genuine telephone box was installed a few metres from the original spot, and has been a listed building since 1989.

Landslips, especially one in 2007, have been damaging the village. In 2009 a 25 foot crack appeared on the cliff-side sparking calls for the village to be evacuated.



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Lighthouse Museum in Fraserburgh

On the last day of my visit we ventured north along the coast of Scotland. Our first stop was in Fraserburgh where we learned about the history of the Lighthouses of Scotland.

The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses, in Fraserburgh, consists of the first lighthouse built on mainland Scotland. The history of lighthouses in Scotland really starts with a small tower on the Island of May. A tower had existed there from the seventeenth century and had been used to warn mariners by burning braziers from its top. On mainland Scotland the tower at Kinnaird Head was the very first to be converted from a castle tower. It is the oldest remaining lighthouse in mainland Scotland.

1635 - Isle of May Lighthouse conceived
A Crown Patent was issued in this year to James Maxwell and two brothers, John and Alexander Cunningham, to build a light beacon on the Isle of May. It was a private enterprise and two shillings per ton was charged to Scottish ship owners to keep it lit. This was something of a poor deal because the Isle of May was little more than a naked flame and had dubious value as a navigation aid. The original tower no longer exists but traces of the foundations may still be seen on the island.

1786 Creation of a Northern Lighthouse Trust
The fierce storms in the year 1782 led to the creation of the Northern Lighthouse Trust. Merchant ship owners were convinced that something needed to be done to light the Scottish coastline following serious shipping losses of that year. The Dundee merchant George Dempster agitated for the creation of lighthouses around the coast of Scotland. Following the meeting of a Parliamentary Committee, it was decided that lights were needed at the Mull of Kintyre, Point of Scalpay on the Isle of Harris, North Ronaldsay and Kinnaird Head near Fraserburgh. In 1786 an 'Act for erecting certain lighthouses in the Northern Parts of Great Britain' was passed and the Northern Lighthouse Trustees were created. Nineteen members from various walks of life were appointed as Trustees. This organisation eventually became what is now known as the Northern Lighthouse Board.

1787 Alterations to Kinnaird Head lantern completed
Thomas Smith, an Edinburgh tinsmith had invented a series of parabolic reflectors and lamps that could be used from a fixed position. In 1786 the Trustees of the Northern Lighthouses decided to purchase Kinnaird Head castle from the Fraser family and erect their light there. Smith was appointed engineer to the Trustees after being sent to study under an English engineer, Ezekiel Walker. The lantern that he created on the top of the castle was composed of seventeen reflectors, burning whale oil, and was fixed inside a small tower. It was made in Edinburgh and shipped to Fraserburgh. The light was first illuminated for mariners on 1 December 1787.

1822 August Fresnel invents a new type of lens
The Frenchman August Fresnel was the first to develop the refracting lens in which light is collected over an angle and bent into the horizontal. It did not use a single central bull's eye but instead it was split into horizontal layers. Fresnel toured Scotland and was a friend of Alan Stevenson. The lens he invented still bears his name.

1853 Electric Illumination used in lighthouses for the first time
Professor Holmes constructs a magneto-electro machine allowing electric arc light to be used for the first time in lighthouses. Between 1862-1879 the electric arc was installed in the UK, the Isle of May lighthouse receiving it in this period.




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