I've always loved Scotland and this is my fourth visit here. I wanted to spend some time in Aberdeenshire, home to many castles and loads of incredibly powerful and fascinating history.
I have a Clan Fraser family connection and so visiting Castle Fraser was especially meaningful.
Some castles were built in the most extreme and dramatic locations, making you wonder at the harsh lives people lived in the defense of their lands.
Many properties I visited dated back a thousand years, and there was rich Jacobite history throughout, for those who, like me, have a fascination for that era, and the wars of 1745.
Rolling green hills, with a touch of autumn colours.
This was the view throughout much of this north-east area as I drove around.
Castle Fraser. Enormous grounds and beautiful gardens. Well worth the visit. There are two main Fraser lines - Clan Fraser and the Frasers of Lovat. The direct line of the Frasers of Castle Fraser have now died out, but the Fraser Lovats continue. They are related of course and both have rich histories. Like many other clans, they tended to hedge their bets as to whether they were on the side of the English or the side of the Jacobites; it didn't always work out well.
The imposing Castle Fraser entrance and courtyard. Different parts of the castle were built in different centuries.
Laird Charles Mackenzie-Fraser, who had an incredibly interesting life. He bears a strong resemblance to members of my own family!
The entrance to Drum Castle nearby. Wonderful visit, fabulous guides, great stories! Historical home of Clan Irvine.
The garden chapel at Drum. Plans were underway for a wedding the next day. You can get married (at a price) at many of the castles if you have a family connection.
Ballindalloch Castle, home to the Macpherson-Grants, and one of a handful of castles where the laird and his family still live there. This is a little out of the way, but so worth the visit. The grounds are stunning and it sits by the River Avon; along a lovely river walk you can see the Avon meet the River Spey.
Huntly Castle, home to Clan Gordon. A spectacular ruin. Most castles are run by either Historic Scotland or the National Trust of Scotland and it's worth getting a two-week pass, or even for just a little more a year's membership. Some castles, like Ballindalloch above, are run by the families themselves, but they're all equally well presented, with information points all the way around, with artists' impressions of how things might have looked in times past, and with stories of famous figures, battles, and so on.
It's hard to imagine how cold and uninviting many of these castles really were!
You will have spiral staircases everywhere you go - most of stone, and some very narrow and steep!
