Episode 22

Episode 22
Aberdeen, a city of gray granite buildings often described as very bleak and forbidding but I found it not bad at all. Perhaps we were lucky in the fact that the sun was shining even though the breeze was bitterly cold.
The centre of the city seems mainly to be around the area of Union Street, quite a long street lined with these gray granite structures all roughly of a uniform height about 4 to 6 stories. Didn’t see any really tall concrete and glass 20th century monstrosities, thank goodness! There are a number of streets that run off Union Street and some interesting tiny side streets and pedestrian walkways.
We wandered about a bit generally just admiring the architecture and getting a feel for the place. The oldest building in the city is a large stone house dating from 1545, known as Provost Skene’s house . It is hidden in between much more modern larger buildings but some kind soul led us to it. Wonder of wonders a few rooms are furnished with 17th and 18th century furniture and they are open to the public free of charge.
One room is a dining room and the antique furniture, china, glassware and cutlery would be worth a fortune. A beautifully carved wooden cabinet, extremely heavy and probably oak stands at one end of the room, late 18th century. Then there is a 17th century bedroom and dining room, this one had more basic furniture. The real gem though is upstairs where a long room that was once a chapel has a wooden plank ceiling that is painted in panels with religious paintings that are distinctly catholic from the time the house was built and they survived the reformation of 1560 when many such things were destroyed. In fact these paintings only came to light again in 1951 when the place was being renovated, the room had been divided into smaller rooms and a false ceiling had been installed. Since they were rediscovered the paintings have been restored and now visitors can see them. They are very dark though and not easy to see what they are. The last room we saw had a display of evening wear from the 20th century but not a particularly good one, mainly women’s gowns but also a couple of men’s outfits.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the city is Old Aberdeen. For many centuries this was a separate town, and is the older of the two. The oldest area is around the lovely St Machars Cathedral and the street known as The Chanonry where the church Canons once lived. There is also a hospital here that was built in 1801. The first church here became a cathedral when the seat of the bishop was transferred here in the 11th or 12th century but the current Cathedral dates from the late 13th century being built in stages from that time over the next 2 centuries.
There are some lovely gardens here too along the edge of the River Don and a lovely arched bridge from the early 17th century. The arch in this is like that of a church window with a point in the middle and that makes it very unusual indeed. By the time we made it to here our lovely sunny day had disappeared into thick cloud and light rain.
Also in Old Aberdeen is the university centred around Kings College. This college is also very old, the 3rd oldest University in Scotland from the early 16th century. Only a couple of bits of those earliest buildings still exist. We wondered about the place a bit and had a look around. There were students everywhere, in fact in the whole of this Old Aberdeen area I think we saw nothing but students and a couple of other tourists taking photos like ourselves.
The streets of the old city are all cobbled and with the fallen autumn leaves spread all over the pavement it proved quite treacherous in places. The council was making an attempt to clean up the leaves with sweepers and blowers at work but one good stiff breeze would bring down another avalanche of leaves and the place would be just the same again.
On the water front the harbour was very busy with several large ships in dock including a large cruise ship. Off shore from here are a great many oil platforms and this city is the major service centre for them so much of that sea traffic would in some way be connected to the oil industry. Despite all the adverse publicity I had seen about the city, and we nearly didn’t bother coming here, I really quite liked it. Though I do think that perhaps on a dismal day those gray building might be a bit depressing.
On our way towards the Caingorns, and actually within the National Park boundary, (not national parks as we know them in Aussie) we came to one of the old railway stations on an old line that used to service this area, the valley of the Dee river. The line was built in the mid 1800’s soon after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought the Balmoral Estate that is just a few miles further on up the river. The line is closed now and the old route is a walking and cycling track, the station building that we came to Cambus O May is now a private home. Just a few metres upstream from it is an old suspension bridge that was also built around the same time as the railway to provide a safe crossing for people over the river as some had been drowned whilst crossing at the ford not far from here. The bridge that we see now is actually a replica of the original and crosses only the river whilst the original had also provided a crossing over the railway tracks. That is no longer necessary; the tracks having been removed. In 1988 it was decided that the old bridge needed substantial repairs and it was cheaper to rebuild the bridge in the same style than to repair the existing one, so that is what they did. We walked across it and it’s quite wide while the river below is flowing very rapidly and looks quite deep. A little girl was drowned here a couple of years ago.
Queen Victoria always used the train whenever she visited Balmoral and Queen Elizabeth used the train right up until the time the line was closed in the mid 1960’s.
Some way further on we came to the Balmoral Estate. We didn’t see the castle though it may be possible to do so from some other vantage point. We did come across the whiskey distillery that seems to belong to the estate. Royal Balmoral Distillery: If we had been around on Saturday we could have visited the castle for £8 each.
This valley has quite lot of woods and pine forests but as soon as we turned north and left it we passed into an area almost totally devoid of trees. The rounded but often steep hills are covered with heather and grass. To look at the hillsides from a distance it looks as if the heather has been cut in swathes. Sharp edged geometric patterns, curves and straight lines, cover the hillsides; its most strange. The heather is a brownish/tan colour, the grass a straw colour and then there are gray patches too that appear to be dead heather.
Passed through some pretty little villages: We stopped and had a look around at a couple of them though each is different they are also quite alike too. From Grantown-on-Spey we followed the Spey River up to Aviemore. Here we came across the Cairngorm brewery where we tried a few of the local brews. With names like Nessy’s Monster Mash, Santa’s Sledge Hammer, Wild Cat, Witches Cauldron, and Sheep Shaggers Ale it had to be worth a visit. We tried a few of these brews and bought 4 different ones to take back to Heathers. Just a short way further on as we were heading up Cairngorm mountain we came to the Reindeer farm and there we came across another few brews on display; one was called Reinbeer: We had a close up look at the 9 reindeer in the pen here. The rest of the herd are out grazing somewhere. These few very in age from this years calves to the oldest one, Comet, who is 12. That is about 96 in human years. These are the ones that will be working in the Christmas sleigh rides later on. They all still have their antlers and one still had the velvet on its antlers. All seemed totally disinterested in the tourists and ignored us.
The road went on up the mountain and came to an end by the funicular railway station. Its maintenance month this month so the funicular is not running but we could walk on up to the top of the mountain if we wanted. It was extremely cold with a fierce, bitter wind blowing and I decided against the idea. It was just too cold to contemplate. A small Christmas market is set up here selling all the usual Christmas junk and there is a shop selling some warm clothes at horrendous prices and a cafe. They were all lovely and warm inside so we lingered here for a while and looked about.
Last year they got heavy snow late November, it soon melted and they didn’t get any more till February so that sort of stuffed a large amount of the Ski season. This year snow is predicted for this coming weekend and they are hoping that they get a better overall season than last year.
Back down off the mountain we came to the old Ruthven barracks. They have lost their roof and a few of the walls have fallen somewhat but overall they are in reasonable shape. Built in 1721 after the Jacobite uprising they consist of two buildings facing each other with a parade ground in between. Sixty men in each building, ten to a room and two to a bed, they had to cook and clean for themselves. The officers’ quarters were separate in a watch tower. Some years later a stable was built and some cavalry were stationed here to patrol the roads the military built.
The barracks successfully defended themselves against a band of Jacobites in 1745 but surrendered to them when attacked again early in 1746 before the battle of Culloden.
For someone who doesn’t even like whiskey I’ve been to an awful lot of distilleries, the latest one being Dewars ‘world of Whiskey’ in the small town of Aberfeldy not far from Perth. As tours go this was by far the best as it not only included a tour of the working distillery but also a good museum on the history of this distillery and the family that developed it.
Unlike the others we visited Dewars primarily produce blended whiskeys. The business was started by John Dewar in 1846 when he opened his own shop in Perth after working and learning about whiskeys in a relatives shop. He actually pioneered the blending of whiskeys to produce a more subtle taste that would appeal to the upper classes more, those who normally drank wine, port, brandy, etc. A few years later he brought his son John into the business then died a year later. Son John brought brother Tommy into the business, and this was the best thing that could happen as Tommy was a born salesperson and he sold it everywhere he went. He spent 2 years travelling around the world in the late 1800’s selling and promoting their whiskey while John managed the business at home and with the help of a blender by the name of Cameron developed several award winning blends.
It was to supply themselves with a supply of consistent basic whiskey for their blends that they built this distillery in the late 1800’s. This distillery now produces between two and three million litres of malt whiskey a year, most in used in their own blends but they do sell to other blenders too. Their blends are also made up of wheat based whiskey and that from a wide range of other distilleries. Originally the malting was done here too but now, like nearly all the other distilleries the malting is done at places that specialize in it, doing each batch to the specifications of each separate distillery. No two are the same apparently. I hope none of the dispatchers get the consignments mixed up and send one to the wrong place, would be ten years later possibly before the mistake was discovered, what a bummer!!!!
In the museum we saw a film made in 1927 of the making of whiskey; Tommy had the film made as a promotion. It showed the growing and harvesting of the barley, the malting process, the milling, the making of the wort and the distilling process, then onto the storing, bottling and packaging, then the shipping of the end product. I was quite surprised at how automated the bottling and packaging was even then. In some things we haven’t progressed all that fast.
Also in the museum we saw that Dewars had won a medal at some Queensland international exhibition in Brisbane in 1897. There was also a photo of Bert Hinkler and the Dewar’s and in the article it said that Bert had delivered some of their whiskey that he’d carried with him on the flight from here. Dewars had been one of his sponsors.
The company is no longer owned by the Dewar family, it is now owned by the Bacardi family, but there has been another owner in between.
All these distilleries we’ve visited and we still haven’t bought a bottle of whiskey:
We sat in a picnic area, in the car as the wind was bitterly cold, on the side of a hill with a view of hills and mountains all around. Cairngorm was off in the distance and another mountain beside it, both of them had a very faint dusting of snow that wasn’t there yesterday. As we sat and watched another very heavy cloud passed over and dumped some more snow on them. When we drove off and over the hill that cloud caught up with us and we saw a few snowflakes in the air but nothing was settling this low down. Earlier in the day the wind blowing the leaves off the tress was creating flurries of swirling colour like large colourful snowflakes.
Time for another castle: This time its Stirling Castle the one time seat of the Royal House of Stuart. It sits atop a high bluff overlooking the town of Stirling and a large expanse of countryside. In ages past it must have been quite a strategic location not only for the defensive position but also because many roads crossed here. It is believed that there has been a fort here at least since Roman times and most likely earlier.
What we see of the castle now dates mainly from the 16th century, although there is one small section from the 14th century. In the early 14th century Robert the Bruce destroyed all the existing fortifications after he won a decisive battle near here when he engaged English troops who were on their way to relieve the garrison that occupied the castle. The first part of the present castle was built later that some century.
Probably the most attractive building in the complex is the French Renaissance style palace that was built during the time of James V (hope I’ve got the right James). He married Mary of Guise and her fathers wedding present to them was the building of this palace. Sadly all the remains for us to see is the outside with its sculptures, ornate windows and decorative style and the gutted interior. For several hundred years the castle has been a military barracks until the 1960’s and all the lavish furnishings and fittings of the Royal households have long since disappeared. At present it is in the process of being restored but this has been going on for a long time and will continue for many more years. We could wander around inside this palace; it is built around a central courtyard. In each room there is a notice telling us what its purpose used to be and pointing out things in the overhead beams or special stonework in the walls and some of the fireplaces. With the roof beams in one room the current architects cannot work out how the original ceiling was connected to it. There were some tapestries that used to hang in the Queens bed chamber and currently new ones are being made. Three of the completed ones are presently hanging in the chapel.
When we went into the chapel we had a look at these tapestries: One of them depicts the hunting and killing of a unicorn. In the top part the poor unicorn is being stabled and is surrounded by soldiers attaching it, in the lower part the unicorn is dead and slung over a horse. Apart form the tapestries there is nothing much to see in the chapel.
The other really big building in this castle is the Great Hall: It is now open after about 30 years of restoration though there isn’t much to see in it either. It was here that great banquets were held. One special one was the Christening of the son of Mary Queen of Scotts, can’t remember his name, may have been Charles, anyway Mary borrowed £12,000 from the merchants of Edinburgh to hold a banquet after the Christening. Imagine how much that is in present financial terms. That was the 16th or 17th century. The only things to be seen here really are the 5 huge open fire places that must have consumed a forest at a time, or a complete peat bog, and the oak beams in the roof that are all new and David says that many of them are splitting. There were no nails used, oak pegs were made and used to hold it together as it did in the original one.
The battlements that we stood on to look down onto the lawns below and the city are the most recent additions, 17th and early 18th century: The towers by the entrance arch are older but there were also two more towers beside them but only one base is still visible. All were much taller than what they are now.
A short distance down the road from the castle is a large town house, Argyle Lodgings, and as our castle ticket also covered a visit here we went for a look. This house, or at least a small part of it was in existence at the beginning of the 16th century and had additions built onto it over the next century or so. It is believed that the original owner was probably a wealthy merchant as this would have been a very desirable address so near the Castle.
At one time it was going to be made into a “Poor House” to house the cities homeless but then it was sold to the Duke of Argyle instead and he made some extensions to it. Later it became a military hospital so it too suffered a similar fate as the castle and all the furnishings etc disappeared. In the 1960’s it became a Youth Hostel, but now it too is slowly being restored. Probably the old kitchens are the part that has survived best. The big old ovens where a whole beast could be roasted on a spit can still be seen, so too a small domed bread oven inside one of those big ovens. Over the front door is the coat of arms of one of the owners of the house. It has an American Indian and a mermaid on it.
© Lynette Regan 10th November 2007