This visit was part of a press trip I ‘attended’ on behalf of Visit Aberdeen for FoodFest15 (www.foodfest15.com). FoodFest15 is Aberdeenshire’s take on ‘The Year Of Food & Drink Scotland’ 2015 – and if it’s anything like the experience I had, a grand old time it shall be for anyone who goes. It runs all the way through January to December, though I only showed up for a few days at the end of June. As far as I’m concerned, it’s ALWAYS the year of food and drink – I don’t care where I am, or what year it is. Anyway, I shall now talk about the place you can see before you…
Crathes castle was probably the only non food related stop in the tour, but I’m a history nerd as well as a roving camera stomach so this was also fine. Crathes is a 16th-century castle in the Aberdeenshire region, located near Banchory. The castle and grounds are owned and managed by the National Trust for Scotland and are open to the public all throughout the year (it’s actually the only castle that does this). The castle itself is surrounded by 240 hectares of rolling Scottish countryside, and ‘formal’ gardens. The Ranger Service provides guided walks in the summer months (we didn’t get to do one of those), and it’s also home to the north-east’s only Go Ape.
The castle is an L-plan in shape, and six stories at its tallest points. The interior is extremely well preserved (I’m not entirely sure how or why but I’ll assume that the people who used to live inside it contributed to the upkeep for a few centuries!). Who used to live there, you ask? The Burnett family. The land on which the castle sits was given to them as a gift by King Robert the Bruce in 1323, and they lived there for many hundreds of years to follow. Obviously it wasn’t just them who were there, as a noble family they had many servants ensuring that their needs were seen to and the place functioned (and it would take quite a few people to do this, since the place ain’t small!). The building cont