A Tale of Two Stately Homes

09/10/24

A couple of days work were looming on the horizon and so we scouted out a nearby campsite. Nothing really filled us with a great deal of enthusiasm so we ended up opting for a campsite at Mintlaw that at least promised good signal and somewhere to stretch my legs.

But first of all we needed to find something to fill our Monday.

Haddo House Tour

It was a rather dismal and rainy Monday which meant that we needed an indoor option. With both a Historic Scotland and National Trust membership we had a choice of a few places to visit and chose Haddo House. Although it was a straight forward drive our sat nav had a bit of a melt down, constantly trying to take us up long private drives.  We were glad we’d read the ‘getting here’ information which directed us to Raxton crossroads.

When we arrived we realised we needed to book onto a guided tour in order to actually visit inside the house. Luckily it was a quiet day and we mooched around the shop and cafe while waiting for our tour to begin.

The tour was led by a guide who was obviously very passionate about the subject matter. With a small group of visitors she took us around the house and gave us insights into the history of the house, it’s contents and the people who had lived there.

Haddo House from the formal gardens

The house was owned by the Lords Haddo, Earls of Aberdeen. It was built during the Georgian period but remodelled in the Victorian era by Ishbel, the wife of the 7th Earl of Aberdeen (who later was ‘promoted’ to Marquess). The tour focussed mostly on this couple and the Victorian interior, but also gave a history of the family, including one prime minister and one ‘wicked’ Early (I’m sure there is at least one in every family). The family had may notable political connections and even Queen Victoria had visited. After significant preparations and expense she only stayed for one dinner and one night, reportedly unimpressed by the location.

There are several paintings by notable artists, mostly of stuffy sombre old men. But one possible Raphael was featured in the BBC programme ‘Britain’s Lost Masterpieces’, the provenance of that particular picture is still being disputed today. In one room there were a myriad of watercolour illustrations of Scotland’s castles, intended for a book that was never published.

There was a strong connection to Canada (one of the people on our tour was Canadian. I was particularly taken with the Canadian dinner service with every item hand painted with different flora, fauna and landscapes covering all of the Canadian provinces. Outside there was also the Canadian Hall, a timber building constructed to be a sports hall and games area.

During WWII the house was used as a Maternity hospital for expectant mothers evacuated from the cities and the Haddo Babies still come back to visit.

Eventually the family ran out of the type of money that is needed to maintain a large estate and the house was bequeathed to the National Trust for Scotland. It appears that Ishbel and her husband the 1st Marquess, with their re-modelling of the house, many philanthropic works and taste for travel may have started a general decline in funds.

A night at Brewdog

Paul had spotted that Brewdog’s brewery in Ellon allows motorhomes to stopover and so a plan was made for the night’s stopover. We would head to Ellon for a little pub session and some food.

We turned up at the brewery on the industrial estate in Ellon. You could have called it the Brewdog industrial estate as the majority of the estate is made up of the vast brewdog buildings and stainless steel hoppers. I’ve never been very sure how I feel about Brewdog as a company. They haven’t been without their share of controversy; workplace bullying and some very oddly chosen marketing campaigns (“beer for girls” anyone?) and their beers are mostly too hoppy for my liking (Paul doesn’t drink beer but they do have a cider as well as as distilling gin and vodka). However I didn’t have any concerns about taking advantage of a free night in their staff carpark, where we sneaked into a corner and hung Bertie’s back end over a ditch.

Despite being out of town, the huge bar was fairly busy for a Monday night. We were too late to go on a tour although there was one group of work colleagues who donned high vis and hard hats. We did have a look around their museum though. As well as having a few pints and some dinner.

Mintlaw

The following morning I worked from the van until lunchtime and then we popped over to Aden Caravan park in Mintlaw. The warden wasn’t around when we arrived but a quick phone call and we were sorted with a pitch and access to the facilities. As a campsite it was nice enough, nothing particularly special but it is on the country park and right by the Formartine and Buchan long distance footpath/cycleway. It obviously had enough to offer as there were a lot of permanent pitches. A couple of dreary October days probably weren’t the best time to really get an appreciation for the area.

After work on the Tuesday and Wednesday we did as much exploring as the evening light would allow. We popped out for a walk around Aden country park where we found  the steading which houses the Farming Museum. We were too late to go inside so had to content ourselves with a wander around the outside.

We also tried to get to Deer Abbey which, again, was closed but we thought we might be able to view it’s ruins. We walked along the dismantled Formartine and Buchan railway trying to find a viewpoint but were unsuccessful.

The park also includes the ruins of Aden House which was abandoned after use as a barracks during World War II. Like Haddo House, the cost of maintenance and restoration after the war became too much. But this house was gutted and left a shell.

As we left on Thursday we visited the local butchers Ewan Morrice. They are a small chain and came highly recommended. We got some of their black garlic marinated steak, which was delicious.