Braemar History
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In 1618 Braemar was visited by John Taylor, the
'water poet', who wrote largely about his experiences of a deer hunt, in his story the astonishing thing is not the differences from the present but the similarities.
Once in the yeire
for the whole month of August and sometimes part of September the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom doe come into these highland countries to hunt. And they doe conform themselves to
the habit of the Highland men, who for the most part speak nothing but Irish, their garters being wreathes of hay or straw with a plead about their shoulders which is a mantle of
diverse colours.
A gathering for a more serious purpose than its modern counterpart assembled on 26 August 1715 It was in fact a conclave of Jacobites convened by the Earl of Mar The
fateful decision was taken, and on the 6th of September, the standard was raised for King James V111 the Old Pretender, on a knoll to the east of the old Barony courthouse of Kindrochit on the spot now covered by hotel buildings Braemar Castle stands It
was built by the Earl of Mar in 1628, In 1689 during Claverliouse's campaign, it was burned by the
farquharsons of Inverey after they had outwitted the Government troops of General Mackay.
After many adventures it was leased for ninety-nine years to the War office as a barracks for
keeping watch on the still turbulent Highland. To this five-storied turreted L-plan house the War Office added a rectangular rampart or curtain wall with salient projecting from each
face so as to form an eight-pointed star one of the most remarkable extant examples of a Hanoverian fort.
At a later date the turrets were raised a storey higher and given
'gingerbread' battlements. The inscriptions on the woodwork inside, made in boredom by I8th-century foot-soldiers of the garrison can still be examined.
Braemar’s most famous modern
institution, the Gathering, dates from I832. When it was initiated by the Braemar Wright’s Friendly Society. Queen Victoria attended her first Gathering in I848.
Today the Braemar
Gathering, held in September in the Princess Royal Park draws an annual gathering of 50.000 visitors.
Piping being its strong game the usual 'heavy' athletic events climaxed by the tossing of
the caber. The arrival of the Royal Family is the high point of the day.
The Invercauld Studios and Galleries were first opened in 1952 in a disused old church and other buildings, here are given exhibitions of Scottish arts and craft’s and an annual festival of music and drama is held in August and September. Robert Louis Stevenson spent a winter in Braemar and
wrote Treasure Island there.
Standing over 1,100 feet above sea level Braemar via the devil’s elbow gives access to the large area of the
eastern Cairngorms where at a 1,100 feet the climate can become bracing with the mar lodge being the base for the winter and summer sports.
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