Castle Hat

Sorry for the lack of blogging yesterday, but we were staying at Castle Hat, and there were no computers there to use. The day started out fine, with an uneventful flight from Dublin to Aberdeen. (Uneventful is just how I like my flights, since I am terrified of planes.) The Aberdeen airport is small and seems to be nothing but an ad for something called the RSB Group. We weren't sure where to catch the train to one of the two villages Lady Hat would have been willing to pick us up from, so we just took a taxi, which was a fifty-pound trip. At least the taxi driver had an entertaining Scottish brogue and told us Hat was a really popular surname in the area - his best friend's name was Hat.

We arrived at Castle Hat in the early afternoon, which seemed to throw Lady Hat for a loop. "I understood you weren't arriving until five," she said. She told us we could explore the grounds, which were covered with spectacular blooming rhododendrons, and that dinner would be at eight. Eight!? We hadn't eaten lunch, so Travalon and I decided to find the nearest pub. Lady Hat practically jumped at the chance to dump us off in front of the Hat Arms Hotel, a very cute building bearing the Hat family coat of arms, but it was not open. Travalon and I wondered what to do: walk the three miles back to Castle Hat on an empty stomach, or wait around and hope the pub opened? Fortunately a woman walking a dog helpfully told us there was a bistro in a village another mile and a half down the road, so we headed there. Once in town, we asked a guy if he knew where the bistro was, and he laughed and said, "I'm the owner!" So we had a good lunch and walked back to the Hat Arms Hotel, which was mysteriously open for business. It was a gorgeous day, so we sat outside sharing a ginger beer and then decided to walk the three miles back to Castle Hat, but we hadn't taken into account that all the creatures in Scotland are very friendly and come to greet you when you pass by. We had to stop to talk to horses, ponies, cattle, and sheep, plus Travalon took lots of shots of the Scottish Highlands, with rugged mountains rising behind pine-covered hills and yellow fields filled with rapeseed plants. Consequently, we were late for dinner at Castle Hat, but oddly Lord and Lady Hat didn't seem that put out, especially considering how annoyed Lady Hat had seemed when we arrived earlier than she expected.

Castle Hat is not as sumptuous as the Irish castle we stayed at, but it was not a disappointment. The decor involved loads of animal heads and tiger skins, the Hat family tartan everywhere, the Hat family coat of arms everywhere else, the Hat family crest in the rest of the places, and paintings of ancestral Hat clan members all over the walls. Lady Hat is a fellow plant lover, and there were blooming orchids and cacti all over. Our room was light-filled, with a bathroom nearly as large and just as light. Richard Bonomo will be proud to learn it contained a bidet. (Unlike the toilet downstairs, the one in our room did not have the Hat family coat of arms prominently featured on the lid.) Dinner was in the formal dining room and was fish soup, roe deer from the estate, spinach grown on the estate, and for dessert, a plum crumble with plums grown on the estate. We talked with Lord Hat, a fine tall specimen with very blue eyes and white hair, about the Hat family history, although I felt a little like the poor cousin admitting my branch of the Hats were Irish. (I didn't even mention the Catholic part.) He is the twenty-third Lord Hat and can trace his family directly back to Angus Hat in the eighth century. Wow! I'm not sure I can even name all my great-grandparents. We talked late into the night, since the sun doesn't set in Scotland at this time of year until well after 10 pm. Then I took a bath, because there was no shower, and fortunately I had brought my own shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel. Castle Hat does not provide such amenities, though oddly they did have shaving cream in the bathroom.

This morning Lady Hat fed us cereal and toast in the kitchen, then Lord Hat took us to see the stone circle on the Hat estate. It had a huge stone altar carved with what looked like a shamrock, three sort of round indentations Lord Hat said are called "the devil's hoofprints." Then Lady Hat dumped us in the village of Insch, a place with no amenities like coffee shops or toilets, but there was a hill towering over the town known as Dunny Deer Hill, and on the top of it was an ancient stone arch. Travalon took lots of photos, since my camera died once we arrived at Castle Hat. (Probably from getting so wet at Bru Na Boinne.) I am just loving all these ancient stone monuments all over this area, the northeast part of Scotland. Lord Hat tells us there are more here than anywhere else in the country. Then Travalon and I took the train to Aberdeen, a very pretty town full of granite buildings. We had lunch at a Brazilian restaurant and then set off to explore the city. Fortunately we found the internet cafe where I am now writing this, since I know my family members will be most interested in reading about Castle Hat. One guess where Pa Hat and Brother Hat's Christmas presents are coming from this year.

Famous Hat