Community | Events | E-Texts | Resources | Email List

Community
Blog
Email List
E-Texts
Photo Page
Resources
Links
Book Store
Contact

Jane Austen
The Brontës
George Meredith
Simone Weil

George MacDonald

Huntly

Click on image to enlarge it.

Bounded on two sides by the rivers Bogie and Deveron, Huntly is twelve miles south-east of Keith, off the A96.

In 1314, King Robert granted title to the lands to Sir Adam Gordon of Huntly. The Castle (previously known as The Peel of Strathbogie) then became the seat of the Gordon clan.

George MacDonald's Birthplace

Duke Street, Huntly. George MacDonald's birth place is on the righthand side in the first picture.

The Farm The 'Farm', George MacDonald's home at Huntly.


	Above the Farm towards Huntly.
	Interior of bedroom believed to have been George's as a boy. The window, perhaps, later helped to inspire him in "At the Back of the North Wind" (image coutesy Mark Grant)

Huntly
	Built for George MacDonald's friend and colleague Rev Robert Troup, who became pastor in Huntly and fell in love with George MacDonald's cousin Margaret - George MacDonald married them. Troup lived in this house with his blind daughter Sophie, and the braille sign for the house, "Howglen", is still on the gate. Troup's son Edward married George MacDonald's daughter Winifred - the author lived with this couple in Surrey for the last months of his life.
	Huntly Town Square. The red door is the "The Brander Library" - the Huntly Museum/Library, which opened 1885. In front of this is bench with epitaph "Here lies Martin Elginbrod..." In George MacDonald's day the building here was two shops, a shoemaker's and a tailor's.
	The Gordon Arms in the town square. A tavern or hotel has been here since mid 18th century. It was at the front of the hotel that stagecoaches regularly arrived from or departed to Aberdeen/Inverness. It was once used by the Gordon's for dining, guest overflow, and meetings.
	The Congregational Church. The man on the right with the hat is local historian Patrick W. Scott author of "Images of Scotland: Huntly".
Huntly Castle

The Environs of Huntly

To the right of the tall coniferous trees in the background is The Farm. The field was formerly the MacDonald Bleachfields.

Looking away from Bleachfields, in direction of castle and Devron.

Bogie (Glam) and Saw Mill.

Devron River.

Ba' Hill, the hill up behind The Farm. MacDonald talks in the letters of returning here as an adult and going up to read/write/think in these familiar haunts. The "forest" is small, but sits on the top of Ba' Hill, about a 20 minute walk from The Farm... a road leading from The Farm up to this spot. Kirsten Johnson (a Canadian now living in Scotland) who took these photogtraphs comments "When I first saw it, I instantly realized "This is what George MacDonald's fairy forests look like!!""