For one night only – we were in Aberdeen recently. We went there mainly to visit Crathes Castle which is about 15 miles west of Aberdeen. Below is a photo of the castle from the front. It’s Scottish baronial in design as you can see and it’s pronounced Crath-es.

The castle was originally owned by the Burnett (pronounced Burn-it) family but it is now owned by the Scottish National Trust. As ever you are not allowed to take photos of the inside, it is about time they woke up and got rid of that rule as there is no possibility of damaging anything nowadays when you can turn the flash off in cameras. The SNT would get so much more publicity if there were images of the inside of their properties all over the internet.

Above is the back of the castle, not quite so attractive as the front.

Leaning out of one of the open windows in the castle I managed to get this photo of the autumn colour of one of the gardens. They are really well worth visiting, I’m planning to go back next spring or summer to see them at their best.

There’s a lot of yew topiary there some of which is hundreds of years old. What a job it must be to keep that lot looking good!

I loved the look of this teeny wee house too, I have no idea what it was for, maybe just for gardeners to hide from the rain in a downpour, or just to look pretty.

The next day we went into the city of Aberdeen itself, apparently the oil capital of Europe but I can’t say that it impressed me. I hate the greyness of it all, famously the buildings are mainly made of grey granite which is supposed to sparkle in the sun but it was a lovely bright day and Aberdeen still managed to look dreich. Granite’s one saving grace seems to be that it is hard wearing. You can see some images of Aberdeen here.

Aberdeen does have a good art gallery though and it was worthwhile going to the city to see that alone. You can see some of their treasures here.