What no castle? The closest is probably near Stonehaven which I visited on a trip in 2015. But I found a wee old museum and a great one. The one that once stood here has been long gone.
The Tolbooth Museum is one of Aberdeen’s oldest buildings dating in parts, from the mid- 17th century and it is built on a site that has held a Tolbooth for m3 centuries earlier. Originally used as a tollbooth and tax collection house and then a prison, most of the exterior has ben enveloped by later structures but the interior and it’s artifacts are still on view. Including the 86 spiral stairs.
Not much to photograph but interesting none the less.
The area around the Tolbooth is interesting including a Mercat Cross located on the east end of Union St, the central street in the city. In Scotland, a mercat cross was a designated location for trade declared by a monarch or bishop. This one was built in 1686 on an older site.
Just by the cross is a memorial to the Gordon Highlander’s Regimental Memorial that Winston Churchill called the finest regiment in the world.
Around the corner is Marischal College founded in 1593 and the second largest granite building in the world(after the Escorial, Madrid) as part of Aberdeen University. Part of it houses the Aberdeen City council
One of it’s graduates who I recognized was Hugh Mercer a Jacobite & US Revolutionary general
Outside there is an impressive statue of the Scottish hero, Robert the Bruce.
And then I spotted Paris. A loca,l he had obviously spent considerable time developing and cultivating his look.
When I first approached him and asked for a photo, he was very stand-offish and as I offered my card, he mentioned he needed no religion. Eventually he realized I was not a threat and we talked for 15-20 minutes. He has a lot of stories and opinions of William Wallace, the Bruce (the Bruce comes from the French, since he was of Norman decent of de Bruce) and their character developed after extensive research and written about. Unfortunately he was not inclined to give me contact info for later follow up as I found him fascinating and would have loved to have gotten to know him better. He was suing the BeeGees “Massachusetts” when we parted.
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