Thirteen months ago, we moved to Aberdeenshire. The choice for this region wasn’t entirely our own, but slowly the area is growing on me. When you think of Scotland, you envision the otherworldly west coast landscapes, the historic city of Edinburgh, and cosy pubs. We don’t have any of that here. The hills are beautiful, but they don’t compare to the mountains of Glencoe and Skye, Aberdeen is a city where I spend as little time as possible, and the coffee shops and pubs near me are closed for most of the week. But the one thing we do have an abundance of around here is castles and their gardens.

Aberdeenshire is known as Scotland’s Castle Country. There are more than 260, of which 19 are open for the public to visit. So once in a while, we pick a new castle to explore. Fyvie Castle is only accessible with a guided tour. The tours are usually around 45 minutes, but our guide was such an enthusiastic storyteller that ours lasted an hour and a half. 

During our visit, we learned about the ghosts living in the castle, the curses upon some rooms and the family, and the literal skeleton in the closet. It was quite interesting – if you are into that sort of thing. The interior design of the castle wasn’t to my taste, so I focused my photographs on some details rather than an overview of the rooms. And since our tour ran so long, we couldn’t explore the grounds. But perhaps another time.