Duncan Harley

Recently rebuilt following a disastrous fire, the timber-clad railway station at Ballater was at one time frequented by the Royal family in the days when the journey north to Balmoral involved rail travel. When the Deeside line closed to passengers in 1966 the building found new use as shop units and even incorporated a Tourist Information Centre and a restaurant. A part of the building was turned into a museum and visitors could, if they were lucky, meet up with a tartan-clad mannequin dressed up as Queen Victoria’s loyal ghillie John Brown on the station platform. A second mannequin, representing an ageing Victoria in black mourning dress, could be seen glowering in the private Royal Apartments of the station building. Those Royal apartments naturally featured a Royal Thunder-box complete with an ornately decorated porcelain pan, replete with Acanthus leaves and brightly painted woodland flowers. The loo was of course off limits to ordinary travellers. In more recen...

The timber-built railway station at Ballater was frequented by the Royal Family in the days when the journey north to Balmoral involved rail travel. When the Deeside line closed to passengers in 1966 the building found new use as shop units and even incorporated a Tourist Information Centre and a restaurant. Prior to the disastrous 2015 fire, a part of the building was turned into a museum and visitors could, if they were lucky, meet up with a mannequin dressed as Queen Victoria’s loyal ghillie John Brown on the station platform. A second mannequin representing an ageing Victoria, complete with mourning dress, could be seen taking tea in the private Royal Apartments of the station building. Those Royal Apartments naturally featured a Royal Loo. Thunder-box in form and with an ornately decorated porcelain pan, replete with Acanthus leaves and brightly painted woodland flowers, the loo was off limits to ordinary travellers during Victoria’s time. In more recent times however, s...

Author John Buchan once described Walter Scott’s 1814 novel Waverley as a "riot of fun and eccentricity", a view not shared by a great many other commentators. Some critics have even been known to view Scott’s tales of wild tartan clad Highlanders, romanticised castles and heroic Jacobite insurrection as somewhat dour, inaccurate and humourless. Notwithstanding this, Sir Walter was charged with organising festivities for the 1822 visit of King George IV to Scotland in which "the garb of old Gaul", the kilt and the tartan, featured prominently. The Royal romance with the Highlands had been kindled and decades later, in 1852, following some three years of careful negotiation, Queen Victoria and the Royal Consort Prince Albert purchased the, by then run down, Balmoral Estate - the previous owner having died after choking on a fishbone. By 1856 the new Balmoral Castle was complete. The original building was completely demolished and Victoria’s “dear paradise in...