Duff House

I know, I know. It's been too long.  I've been struggling to get back into the writing with the end of this adventure looming ahead of me on Sunday. Don't get me wrong, I am excited to head back to the states where I can have Mexican food, ranch dressing, refills on drinks, and countless other magical things.  This gray, calm city has become my home, though, and you always get a little twinge in your stomach when you are about to close another chapter in your book of life.

Tolquhon Castle

Anyway, let's get back to business.  After Edinburgh we set out for what was supposed to be a quick drive up to Macduff town to visit the Duff House.  Dad was not as excited, but he made up for it by making us take every detour imaginable.  Our first stop was a real feed store operating out of Insch, Scotland.  The Norvite Animal Nutrition Company reminded us of Jake's Feed Store in Longview, only this one had a lot more sheep based products.  In order to drag Dad out of there, (he was basically like a little kid, always wanting to stop and look at tractors, boats, water) I promised him a castle that we had seen a sign for just past the feed store.  Tolquhon Castle was built by William Forbes in 1584.  It is most known for it's impressive Gate house, which is good because that's all we got to see of it.  November is not the big month for tourism here as the thermometers all say 4-5 degrees so the castle was closed.  We had a good five minutes looking around before our fingers and toes started complaining about the freezing weather in their southern accents.

We stopped for lunch in a promising little town that had more than five houses, which is all it takes to have a town here.  Mom and Dad had their hearts set on finding some of the good Scottish Angus beef.  We found a cute cafe and were excited to see burgers and milkshakes on their menu.  The waitress came up to take our order and informed us that they were out of burgers.  The look on my parents' faces were like little kids had just been told that recess was cancelled...for the year. It was priceless.  Dad still ordered his chocolate milkshake and was disappointed to find out that Scotland's milkshakes are just chocolate milk that you have to stir yourself.

Duff House with Mom and Dad

Moving on. Finally arriving in the town of Macduff, we pulled in to the expansive Duff House estate.  The fall colors on the trees were absolutely astounding.  There was a public playground and field that all the locals came out to use.  Architect William Adam, who fathered the Adam brothers most known for creating "Adam style" decorating, built the Duff House for William Duff the Earl of Fife in 1735.  The story goes that William and William got in a huge debate about costs for stone cutting masons.  The main house was already built, but the wings that were supposed to go on either side of the giant house were put on  hold as the two men took the issue to court.  It took five years to resolve the issue, after which William Adam won the case but passed away due to the stress of the whole ordeal, and William Duff abandoned the house and would draw the shades on his horse carriage whenever passing it.  The house passed through time as an early twentieth century hotel, a private hospital, and a home for countless troops during World War II, not all at the same time, of course. It turns out that the Northeast of Scotland was a great place to plan attacks on Germany.  The House has a painted Norwegian flag over the fireplace left over from a Norwegian troop as a painful reminder of the war.  The nice little tour guide was explaining all of this when he asked where we were from, which we all answered Texas.  He studied me and said, "You don't have the complexion of being from Texas."  
"Oh, well, I've been living in Aberdeen for the past three months, we don't get much sun there," I said.
"Yes, I see you are kind of a gray color like the city."

I didn't know what to say.  My parents openly laughed. We thanked him for the information and then were unceremoniously kicked out of the House because it was closing.  A quick play on the playground and we headed back to Aberdeen to tell Allen all about our adventure we had.