Aberdeen to Inverness (Huntly)

I'm going to separate this into two posts. This is partially because there were two major stops, and it's easier to divide the photos.

Mostly, though, it's because I'm lazy.

This would be the ruins of Huntly Castle. Wiki can give you a better history of it than I can, but I will note that, like most of the castles we saw, it was occupied both by private residents and by armies between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries.

One fact thing we learned was that the castle is a ruin not because it was destroyed during hostilities, but because of the roof and window tax. The owners of the castle were had long been living elsewhere when the tax was implemented; in order to avoid paying taxes on a castle they didn't use, they stripped the roof and windows, subjecting the building to decay for the next hundred years or so. If I recall correctly, the date was 1799. But I may be wrong.

I often may be wrong. It's just that I so rarely often am.

Incidentally, the castle wasn't the original reason I wanted to stop in Huntly. George MacDonald (if you haven't heard me mention him by now, you haven't been listening) was born and raised in Huntly. The castle was a really lovely ruin, though, and I saw a lot more of it than I saw of the town. Actually, I think it was one of the most interesting castles we saw, alongside Menzies, Urquhart, and Eilean Donan.

Overload of pictures yet? Just for fun, I'm adding a big block of them at the end of this.

Speaking of photos, I promise it's the last time I'll point it out: the pictoors link leads to my online photo album, which includes all the pictures I omitted, whether for reasons of quality or space. There are a lot. For some reason, though, all the ones with me in them have mysteriously disappeared.

Fancy that.

(Incidentally, I'm aware of the disparity in my grammar which doubtless caught your trained eyes. I assure you, it was deliberate.)

(Hey, I know what I'm doing, so I'm allowed.)