Duncan Harley

The Zulu wars were to take an awful toll on Aberdeen’s Gordon Highlanders and in years to come, the young men of the regiment were to be sacrificed on the poppy strewn plains of Europe not just the once but twice more. Miss Christie, as her pupils referred to her, seldom shared her feelings with her Dunnottar Primary class.  But her charges still recall her tears each year when, on the anniversary of the death of a brother who perished amongst the dense  blue clay  of  Flanders  fields, the entire class would be asked to recite John McCrae’s poignant poem ‘In Flanders Fields.’ I n Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we t...

The North-east countryside is littered with heritage in the form of archaeology from the near and distant past. There are Roman marching camps, castles galore and of course a multitude of ancient stone circles and standing stones. Most of these structures were built for a purpose.  For example, each night the while on the march the Roman army constructed a temporary camp, complete with rampart and ditch, as a defence against attack while in hostile territory. Examples can be found at Durno and at Kintore. The Castles and the big houses were in many cases also defensive structures but in more recent times they became potent symbols of the wealth that the area generated through agriculture, inheritance and trade. Debate of course continues over the true purpose of the standing stones and the stone circles. Places of worship and centres of mystical ceremony say some. Others wonder if the circles were simply settlements. After all, folk in those distant times needed a decent ...

It’s been hot and sticky in the Garioch with highs of around 27C and still no sign of a promised shower to break the humidity. On the email front, B & Q have been in touch to advise that the pensioner’s discount of a hefty 10% each Tuesday is now restricted to garden items only. CEO Mike Emery has at one fell swoop alienated everyone on the planet over 60 with the pronouncement that “from 3 September 2‌01‌8 , the 10% discount we offer to you every Wednesday will be limited to gardening products when you shop and take away in store”. Has he even heard of Homebase I wonder. It’s amazing how much negative publicity you can buy in lieu of a £2-97 discount on a pot of black Hammerite. Then there was that theft of crown jewels from a museum in Sweden. Some thieves in a boat seemingly made off with the crown and sceptre. Worth some humongous amount of Kroner, the royal accoutrements seemingly rival the Scottish Crown jewels if tabloid accounts are to believed in the...

It’s been an interesting day. After visiting a grave at Old Deer, we found ourselves with a very flat tyre. Normally this is not a problem of course, you simply jack up the car and get on with the business of sorting it all out. However, on this occasion, following the jacking up and the mandatory loosening of several wheel-studs, the car fell off the jack and grounded. I swear it was not my fault. Yes, I leant on the bloody thing and yes, I gasped in anticipation of imminent re-hospitalisation as it rolled backward towards me. But, in the big scheme of things, it was nothing to do with me really. If the driver, not me I can assure you, had applied the hand-brake none of this would have ever happened. Fortunately, I survived the encounter unscathed aside from a sense of survivor’s guilt. Should I have done something to prevent the catastrophe? Should I have taken the blame? Nah. And double nah. What to do? Thoughts of asking Green-flag to the rescue were quickly put aside and an oct...

Much of the fun in the penning of a book is in the reading of the final published text. Newspaper articles and magazine features pale into insignificance when your tome makes those dusty and hallowed bookshelves for the very first time. Not that it beats child-birth and not that I have experienced that first hand, although I have a couple of sons and can vividly recall the exhilaration of getting to know them both for the first time. So, yes, a book is different and not quite on the same scale at all. But, and I say this with all sincerity, it is still a big rush to cast an eye over the published product and hold that thought ‘I made this happen.’ Here is the introduction to The A-Z of Curious Aberdeenshire in its entirety. On the re-reading, I might have wished for a couple of changes. But hey, in the big scheme of things, it’s not at all a bad piece of writing: ‘The folklore and the history of Aberdeenshire make for interesting reading. Invading armies have come and gone and ...