Scottish Weather and Why it Will Never Get the Best of Me

This Sunday, the attractions of choice were Huntly Castle, and the Dean’s of Huntly Shortbread Visitor’s Center. Luckily, this morning we were able to sleep in as the train didn’t leave until 10 am, much better than the 6:35 bus that we caught the day before. And, even better, we didn’t have to run to catch the train, although I do find that exhilarating.

As soon as we arrived at Huntly, we realized one mistake we had made: do not visit small towns on a Sunday, everything is closed. And I mean everything. From the bakeries to the book shops. Huntly seemed like an abandoned town as we made our way to Huntly Castle. Although it was sort of a gray day, it had a very serene effect. We passed many pretty sights on our way.

As we walked the mile or so to the castle, we passed a WWI memorial. It seems like every town in Scotland has a memorial to honor those who have died in either WWI or WWII. Christina, Laura and I always remark when we come across a memorial how different that is to the United States. We may have some national memorials, and maybe even a few in a couple of states, but nowhere near the number that are present in Scotland.

All of the memorials also have the same pink silk flower wreaths. They are a pop of bright color against the stone that they are laid upon. We continued on the tree lined path, past a school and a playground. Although it was a road, there was not a car in sight, so we strolled down the middle of the lane, trying to avoid puddles as we went.

The next thing we knew we were at the castle. Without any warning, we rounded a corner, and there it was: Huntly Castle. It was a surprising sight to see in the backyard of a school, especially when you compared it to our dramatic walk to Dunnottar. But it was beautiful, even in the gray day.

And here is the reason why Scottish weather will never get the best of me: the worse the weather, the fewer the tourists. There was no one else at the castle for at least the first hour and a half we were there. As we were leaving, another family showed up, but for the majority of our visit, it was like we had a private castle. We could run about, we could take as many pictures as we wanted, and we could separate and then essentially play marco polo to meet up again. We weren’t in anyone’s way, and no one was is our way. Christina and I are in one of the windows in the picture below.

About a half an hour after we arrived at the castle, it started to pour. We took refuge in one of the few buildings that still had a roof, and at our lunch. The sign informed us that this was the brewery. This was one of the moments that we were grateful to be the only ones brave enough to conquer the rain to visit. If there had been anyone else at the castle, we would not have been able to take over the brewery for the 20 minutes we waited for the rain to stop.

The construction of Huntly Castle began in the 12^th century. The castle was then burnt to the ground in the 15^th century when it was sacked by the Earl of Moray. A new castle was built in its place, to which additions were added in the 16^th and the 17^th centuries. The castle was then abandoned by the late 17^th century, the Gordons of Huntly had abandoned the castle. The castle then lay in decay, scavengers taking pieces for building material, until the 19^th century.

Although it has been built and rebuilt, pieces of each castle remain, from the 12^th century onward. The remodeling of the 16^th century lead to the largest frontispiece in any Scottish castle. This is the carved stone above the door containing the Clan of Gordon coat of arms.

After we had our fill of Huntly Castle, we made our way across the town to the shortbread visitor’s center. You could smell the shortbread before we could see the factory. One of my flatmates is currently working in Huntly, and says that when she goes in every morning, the whole town smells like shortbread.

We went inside their café to warm up for a few minute with a cup of tea and the delicious shortbread. Relaxing for a few minutes, recovering from the damp cold outside, we marveled at the amount of shortbread in the gift shop.

If Dean’s was in Aberdeen, I think I might have gone every day. As it is, I still consider going back for the shortbread. There was also a viewing area, where you could see the factory floor. Since it was the weekend, there was no shortbread being produced, but it was still interesting to see how small of a factory produced shortbread exported as far as the United States and Australia.

After we ate enough shortbread to feel sick, we walked back to the train station. But we had looked at the wrong schedule, and there was another hour and a half until the train came. Since nothing was open in the town, we decided to take a walk through the town. It was a lovely, quaint town. On a Sunday, though, it afforded us very little to do.

Even though the sheep and the farms never surprise me as we travel through Scotland, it is the wind turbines on every hill. I knew Scotland was interested in renewable energy, but I didn’t realize how many turbines they already had working. The Scottish government actually has a goal of generating 31% of Scotland’s power using renewable energy by the year 2011, and most of this will come from wind turbines.

All in all, a lovely weekend, although you could probably see the sights in Huntly in around 4 hours instead of the 6 or so that we spent there. Small towns seem to all but shut down on Sunday, something that we might want to be a little more careful about in the future!