Aboyne Highland Games

The day broke with clouds and drizzle and I woke up feeling also out of kilter - no pun intended. . The weather channel promised that the outlook for the afternoon was 'bright' - no description of what bright meant, but it did sound promising. Fitting the last strap to my Keith ancient tartan kilt, I reflected that this was my first Scottish Highland Games actually attended in Scotland and wondered what differences I would notice.

Alice & David and I and two other members of Clan Keith walked the mile or so to the gates of the Aboyne Highland Games. Each step of the way to the Games seemed to enhance the likelihood that the 'brightest' part of the day lay in the past with the previous step. The mist turned to a steady drizzle, which turned into a shower and so on. As we paid to enter the Games site, the drizzle turned to a steady downpour with the mist on the hillsides to the left of the games field descending like an ancient Highland battle line to the game site proper - threatening and vaguely romantic, but damply so.

As the day had no relief from the rain, I took no pictures. I'm including here the website for the Aboyne Games as well as some photo's from their official souvenir program. For me, the day will be remembered primarily for the massed pipe bands (feathered hats and all) progressing up and around the entire field which housed the Aboyne Games - their music proud though their resplendent costumes were sodden from the rain. Pipe music and rain seemed somehow fitting and hauntingly familiar - the mud churned up by the marching bands accompanied by the grey skies and steady rain throwing some genetic switch from a past life.  

The Aboyne Highland Games website is here.

Photo 1: Cover of the Aboyne Highland Games Souvenir Program. The cover shows the opening ceremony of the Gates which lead to the commons which hold the Games. You can see more about this at their website.

Photo 2: Preface from inside the Program giving the highlights and welcoming the Keith Highlanders Pipe Band.

Photo 3: Again from the Program but during a different games with more auspicious weather. These photos show the hills in the background - mist shrouded during the 2002 Highland Games.

Photo 4: Called 'The Swirl of the Kilt' in the Program guide - made me laugh when I saw it and still makes me laugh. Can't imagine the Arlington Highland Games in Texas with this 'swirled kilt' in their official program. Come on, it is funny, and I KNOW it's what the majority of you non-kilt wearers are dying to know - and now you do! 

Photo 5: The Huntly Arms Hotel and Pub directly opposite the site where the Aboyne Games are held. The Marquess of Huntly is the Chief of the Games as well as Chief of Clan Gordon. The Huntly Chiefs are know as 'The Cock of the North'. Another smile nudge nudge wink wink. Actually a name given them by Mary, Queen of Scotland for the way in which her Huntly accumulated vast riches from his high officer in Scotland and lived a very fine life style. Today, the name applies to both the Chief and to the over priced but finely packaged single malt whisky liquer that the Chief and his family sell. I bought my 'Cock of the North' from the Chief's son...who was dressed in superb Highland garb, wearing two eagle feathers designating him as 'of the blood', and speaking with the finest of Public School accents. A rainy but smiley day!

Photo 6: The Boat Inn on the River Dee and about two miles from Struan Hall, our B&B. Had an excellent Haddock dinner - the fish being deep fried and about the size of Kareem Adbul Jabar's footwear. More Tennants and a pretty rowdy pub side adjacent to the dining area!

Photo 7: The River Dee bridge. The River Dee was swollen from all the rain - across the river from the Boat Inn, campers were pitching tents while the locals just shook their heads, thinking that the campers would be spending the night downstream when the river rose higher to sweep them away.  In Scotland, one assumes responsibility for oneself and the campers were left to their own devices regarding where to place their tents. 

Photo 8: The back to the official Aboyne Highland Games program showing the banners of those 'armigerous' persons one might expect to see at the Aboyne Games. 

Aboyne Information

Aboyne lies on the A93 mid way between Ballater and Banchory. As a settlement, it had a late start, though it then rapidly developed into something that would be recognizable to visitors today.

Located on the north bank of the River Dee, there was some sort of village here before 1800. The major turning point came in 1828 with the building of a bridge across the Dee. It was to be a short-lived one, being swept away in serious floods in 1829. But by then the idea had taken hold that this was the natural centre for the area, and the bridge was soon replaced. 

The Deeside Railway reached Aboyne from Banchory in 1859, displacing the coach service to the east that had run twice daily until then. It was extended to Ballater in 1866. Aboyne's railway ceased with so many others in 1966, but its station, rebuilt on a grand scale in 1888, still survives, having seen recent conversion to an attractive range of shops.

The 1829 suspension bridge fared less well, collapsing 30 years later. It was replace in 1871 by a third bridge. What you see today owes much to a major rebuild of the 1871 bridge undertaken in 1930. This made, in effect, four bridges in just over a century: perhaps not a record, but still surprising.

It was the coincidence of the bridging of the Dee, the arrival of the railway, and the spending power of a local resident, Sir Cunliffe Brooks, that really turned Aboyne into what it is today, an inland resort serving a large area of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. It was Sir Cunliffe who established a golf club here in 1883.

In the meantime, hotels large and small emerged, including the prominently placed Huntly Arms Hotel. In 1924 the War Memorial Hall opposite was built. Today Aboyne can be a busy place in high season, but with its large open area next to the A93 it never seems too crowded. And at quieter times it can seem oddly out of place, with the sort of "village-green" air more expected in a settlement in southern England.

The resort theme has been strengthened by recent additions to the range of activities on offer in the area. A couple of miles east drivers on the A93 can stop (in a specially constructed layby) to watch the activities of the gliding club whose airfield lies right next to the road. Meanwhile, the Aberdeen Water Ski Club operates at the Loch of Aboyne, just to the north of the village. On the south side of the River Dee opposite Aboyne is the mouth of Glen Tanar, a glen that leads south west towards Mount Keen and the eastern Cairngorms. This is a popular area for walking and riding, and while it does not have the wildness of the mountains further west it does have a beauty all of its own.

Source: Undiscovered Scotland: Aboyne