Guests Of The Gordons

I've been daytripping with GroupieGirl again... this time heading to the town of Huntly in Aberdeenshire. I've not been there for years - 1997 in fact, only a few months after Groupie and I met. She used to have a biker friend who lived there, and she had invited the two of us over for some fun over the Easter weekend. I vividly remember it because the comet Hale-Bopp was visible in the sky about then, and we could see it so clearly in the dark skies over the little town.

Anyway, we had two places to visit there today - the first being Huntly Castle. Nowadays it's just an old ruin, but four hundred years ago this would have been a country mansion owned by the Earls of Gordon. We had hoped to get a guided tour of the place, which we'd heard took place every Wednesday, but apparently that's only done in summer. So, I bought a guidebook and we did our own guided tour instead, and we ended up spending about an hour exploring the old place.

The Gordons were originally granted the land as reward for their support of the Scottish kings (dating back to Robert The Bruce sending "proud Edward's army homeward to think again" as immortalized in the national anthem) They eventually became the most powerful family in north-east Scotland - a little too powerful for Mary Queen of Scots' liking, who captured the fourth earl in 1562. He later fell off his horse and died, but Mary wasn't going to let a little thing like that stop her from getting satisfaction, having his corpse taken to Edinburgh and put on trial for treason!

The buildings that remain date mainly from about 450 years ago and I found myself imagining how it might have felt to have visited the place then, perhaps as a guest of the lord at one of his banquets. Groupie and I might have enjoyed the feasting in the main hall while minstrels played the 16th century top of the pops - and we'd have been careful not to offend our host, for fear of being thrown in the dungeons below!!

We did some feasting of our own after our visit on more modern fare in a little cafe, and then went to Dean's Bakery, another of the town's claims to fame. They make shortbread here - rather a lot of it! - and you can actually watch the stuff being made through viewing windows. I'm not sure how I'd react to tourists coming in and peering at me trying to do my job every day, but maybe the staff are used to it. We bought several packets of fruit flavoured shortbread to take home with us (and some for Groupie's dad as well) I had no idea fruit flavoured shortbread existed - it'll be interesting to see what it tastes like.

The only strange thing was being stared at by the locals - at least, that's the impression we were getting. Surely we didn't look that touristy? Maybe it was our Cyberdog hats that they were interested in. Anyway, I kept hearing the theme from the BBC show "The League Of Gentlemen" in my head - and the misty conditions didn't help...

I should point out, though, the townspeople were friendly enough when we were dealing with them. We were made welcome and we both had a great time - thanks Huntly!!