Huntly has a long history, the town dating back to the 14th century. But, in addition, there is plenty of evidence of earlier settlement in the surrounding countryside. Stone circles and Iron Age forts nearby show local occupation going back into prehistory.
The first Lord of Strathbogie received his lands from King William the Lion towards the end of the 12th century. He constructed a timber castle on an artificial mound near the River Deveron. This wooden structure was replaced by a massive stone towerhouse sometime after 1376 when the Gordons settled permanently in Strathbogie. This stone castle was itself replaced by a far more spacious building about 1450. Restructuring of this "Palace of Strathbogie", as it was generally called, took place frequently during the next two hundred years.
The earliest settlement was the village of Strathbogie which stretched along the medieval highway linking fords on the rivers Deveron and Bogie. Gradually the village developed into a thriving market town where milling and the extensive weaving of cloth took place. In 1488, the status of the village was raised to that of a Burgh of Barony in favour of George, 2nd Earl of Huntly.
The name of Huntly only appeared in the 14th century with the arrival of the Gordons. King Robert the "Bruce" of Scotland gifted the Lordship of Strathbogie to his loyal supporter Sir Adam Gordon of Huntly in Berwickshire in 1318 or 1319. But it was not until the second half of the 18th century that the new name came into regular use.
Huntly Castle, also known as 'The Peel of Strathbogie' or 'Strathbogie Castle', stands on the south bank of the River Deveron and close to the smaller River Bogie. The castle consists of the motte and bailey built for the Norman Barron Duncan ("of Strathbolgyn"), Earl of Fife, in the 12th century, a mediaeval L-plan tower housing a ground floor prison and the defence earthworks remaining from the Civil War.
In 1320 King Robert granted title to the lands to Sir Adam Gordon of Huntly. The 4th Earl of Huntly (known as 'Cock of the North') rebuilt much of his grandfathers home but in the 17th century it was changed again by the 1st Marquess of Huntly. It welcomed renowned visitors such as James IV in 1496 and Mary of Guise (Mary Queen of Scot's Mother) in 1556. During a fight between the Douglas's and the King (whom the Gordon's were supporting) the lands of Strathbogie were raised and the castle of Huntly burned.
Huntly Castle is famed for its heraldic sculpture and inscribed stone friezes. It is of enormous interest both from the historical and architectural viewpoints. It was the stronghold of the Gordon family, who held power in Scotland at the highest level. For a considerable time it was the headquarters of the Catholic Faith in Scotland. The Castle developed from the twelfth century Norman fortress to a fortified tower house and then to the Palace of Strathbogie, whose stately ruins remain with us today.
During the Reformation, Huntly was the main stronghold of the Catholic faith in Scotland. Priests of the Counter-Reformation were sure to find sanctuary in the Castle or with prominent Gordon lairds in the vicinity. During the Reformation and during the Bishops' Wars and the Civil War of the 17th century, armies frequently traversed Strathbogie causing great hardship to the people of Huntly.
The link with Catholicism was severed when Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon died and his widow raised her son, Duke Cosmo, as a Protestant.
Huntly prospered in the 18th century due to the expansion in the production of linen in the town. At the height of linen's popularity, Huntly accounted for one third of all linen cloth produced in Scotland. The linen trade collapsed when the import of cheap cotton goods from America began at the beginning of the 19th century.
Until 1770, the town consisted of the Old Road, Castle Street, the Square and several lanes leading off the Square. Plans were drawn up for its expansion by Alexander, 4th Duke of Gordon who built new streets on a grid system and sold off many feus for building houses and factories.
In 1793, he raised a new regiment from his estates, assisted by his wife, Jane Maxwell, who is said to have kissed each new recruit. The regiment became known as the Gordon Highlanders, and the town retained strong links with it until it's amalgamation with the Queen's Own Highlanders in 1995. The regimental tartan was woven by a manufactory in the Square.
The son of the 4th Duke, George, had no son to follow him and so was the last Duke of Gordon. After his death, his wife, Elizabeth Brodie, a wealthy heiress, built the Gordon Schools as a memorial to her late husband. This fine building was designed by the eminent architect Archibald Simpson.
From the castle the town is approached via a tree-lined avenue, leading to Gordon Schools, 1839-4, Archibald Simpson; 1888 additions, A Marshall Mackenzie (Matthew's & Mackenzie), founded on the site of the castle port by the Duchess of Gordon in memory of the fifth Duke; Simpsons work is serene and Jacobean, about a centre pend arch crowned by an ogee-capped octagonal tower. Mackenzie's additions blend well. Other buildings include, on the west of the avenue, the old Public School (1885, Marshall Mackenzie) with the secondary department added by William Kelly, c1912 - a strong, two-storey Tudor style with three asymmetrical gables to the front, mullioned windows and heavy chimneys. Around this is wrapped a single-storey 1930's streamlined extension with good granite bow and a two-storey hall with tall concrete ribs, built as late as the mid 1950's. The latest addition is a discrete three-storey flat-roofed building in creamy brick and glass of the 1960's.
The 19th century was, again, a prosperous time for Huntly. Many new industries were established and trade further expanded when the railway came to the town in 1854. A wide variety of industries was became established in the town - a brewery, a distillery, agricultural machinery works, cloth mills on the Bogie; there was a boot and shoe factory, a tinplate works and a millwright who supplied all sorts of machinery for industry. There was even a factory which made cigarettes! Most of these industries have disappeared but to some extent new ones have taken their place.
In 1787 the 75th Regiment, the forerunner of the 1st battalion The Gordon Highlanders, was raised for service in the Far east, but it was not until 1793 when the French Revolutionary Government had declared war on Great Britain that the Government asked the Duke of Gordon to raise another regiment.
The Duke having agreed, he received the authority on the 10th February, 1794, and the command was given to his son, the Marquess of Huntly, at that time a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 3rd, now the Scots Guards. The Duke himself, and his son, took a personal interest in the recruiting and the celebrated Duchess Jean, still a beautiful woman, lent to it all the prestige of her high position and the grace and charm of manner for which she was famed. She rode to the country fairs in Highland bonnet and regimental jacket and it is told how she gave a kiss to the men she enlisted. Sometimes she is said to have placed a guinea between her lips.
On the 24th June, 1794 the newly embodied regiment was paraded for the first time at Aberdeen when they wore the then almost new, and now famous, tartan which had been devised by Forsythe of Huntly. Forsythe had taken the standard plaid and woven in a yellow stripe, which, as he wrote to Lord Huntly, he trusted would appear "very lively."
Recruited mainly in the large Gordon estates in Badenoch, Lochaber and Strathspey but also from the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Elgin,the Regiment was, at first, numbered the 100th Regiment of Foot. But the title of the Gordon Highlanders was used along with the number. In 1798 they became the 92nd, under which number they won their first battle honours and by which they were known until their amalgamation in 1881 with the 75th Regiment.
Based largely on Patrick W. Scott's book, 'The History of Strathbogie'
