31 August 2015 - Haddo House

Bright clear skies turned to rain and 13 C by the end of the day.  It is, after all, the end of summer and seasons are much more clearly defined here than they are at home.

Two front teeth fell out in two days!

 Today was our last chance to see Haddo House as tours for general public are only on Mondays and Sundays.  Haddo House has been owned by the National Trust since 1979. I think bus tours go through on the other days.  When I thought of a house, I thought the building would be smaller than a castle but it wasn’t!  The big kids chose to stay back at the cottage to do school work and Luke was more than pleased to have us for himself!

Approaching Haddo House front entrance - white granite from Aberdeenshire

Grand stairways added by Ishbel Gordon - pink granite posts from Peterhead, quarried by prisoners.

 Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor to Haddo House. Prior to her first visit, she sent a marble bust of herself in preparation so the Marquis could prepare a room for her!  What high self-esteem!  So she arrived to find her bust beautifully mounted over a fireplace in the pride of place!  She was still not satisfied with the room they had prepared for her!  There’s no pleasing some people!

Beautiful fuchias!

The various Earls of Aberdeen and Marquesses of Aberdeen from the Gordon family who lived in Haddo House have made changes to the original house over the years.  The last renovation was by Ishbel, wife of Johnny, who spent the equivalent of 40 Million Pounds changing the Georgian interior to Victorian and building a different entrance hall.  The portraits adorning the walls were of either occupiers and their families or the Scottish nobility.  Charles II featured in more than one painting. We learned that if the subject was pointing up and averting their eyes from directly looking out of the painting, they were already dead and pointing to Heaven.It was considered bad luck for a dead person to be painted looking out of the painting.

Coats of arms in the garden

The Gordons lived on this site for 500 years and the last member of the family who lived here died in 2009.  Haddo House was built in 1732 after the previous dwelling was burnt down by the Coventanters.

The Entrance Hall

The paintings were spectacular and I particularly loved the whole room of watercolours of the 85 castles of Aberdeenshire  by James Giles. There were many notable paintings. The 11 lovely animal paintings in the Entrance Hall were off Aesops Fables with the story written in gold paint below the painting.  These photos were taken before we were given the spiel about no photos!

Beautiful fireplace installed by Ishbel - the top of which is actually a bedhead !  Old fashioned uprecycling!

Aesop's Fables on the wall -  indicated good morals of the house.

Toothless Luke!

 During WWII, Haddo House was a maternity hospital for mothers evacuated from Glasgow.  The 1200 babies are known as the Haddo Babies and they still meet up today!  The last Marquis and his wife, June, who lived at Haddo House adopted 4 children but had no biological children.  The law stated that the adopted children were not permitted to inherit the property although they had all the other benefits of their wealthy upbringing.  There was an Earl of Aberdeen along the track, George, known as Doddie, who was the instigator of offering Haddo House as the emergency maternity unit in WWII, who had epilepsy.  His mother forbade him to marry any woman of childbearing age so that the epilepsy would not be passed on.  However, it is rumoured that he may have been the father of at least some of the 4 adopted children - but, it is only gossip and not substantiated.

The Chapel

 The family chapel was most impressive and is still used today for monthly services and also weddings.  Photos were not permitted on the tour although I believe they would be for weddings!

Lovely spot for a walk!

 It was lovely to have a wander in the vast grounds and to the lake through the forest. I saw three red squirrels but they are so quick that I couldn't photograph one!  We wandered up to the gardens and sat there to have our snack.

Haddo House lake

Up the Lang Scottish Mile (about 200 metres longer than a normal mile)

Wouldn't mind a lake like this!

Back of the house and garden

 There were a few others on our tour including a young laird and his wife from a castle in the west who had  relatives who had owned Fraser Castle.  Luke was playing with their little girl who would have been 3 or 4 years old.  They were a nice unassuming couple but Luke missed his chance with the heiress!  As mentioned before, many of the castles have been able to survive because of marrying wealthy women.

Manicured gardens

One of the guides, Alan, resplendent in his Farquharson kilt, was very entertaining with a thick Aberdeenshire accent.  He recounted that his sister brought home an English boyfriend and his father's only comment was that he had a funny accent and needless to say, the boyfriend never darkened their doorstep again!  Alan was also very informative about the Scottish clans, which really acted as tribes who respected their chiefs and the chiefs really looked after the clan members.  He likened the clans to American Indian tribes.  He also reckoned that the Scots liked a good fight hence all the tartans and warring that went on!  Alan had retired early and was a paid guide for Haddo House.  He did a jolly good job.  Our other guide was Linda, who was also very knowledgeable, had stories to tell. 

Looking down the lang mile

Luke LOVES black pudding and other Scottish food like Haggis so I bought black-eyed Lorne Sausage (square bit of sausage with black pudding in the middle) and he gobbled it down for dinner!