Huntly

Huntly, a police burgh, burgh of barony and parish of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, capital of the district of Strathbogie. Pop. (1901) 4136. It lies at the confluence of the rivers Deveron and Bogie, 41 m. N.W. of Aberdeen on the Great North of Scotland Railway. It is a market town and the centre of a large agricultural district, its chief industries including agricultural implement-making, hosiery weaving, weaving of woollen cloth, and the manufacture of lamps and boots. Huntly Castle, half a mile to the north, now in ruins, was once a fortalice of the Comyns. From them it passed in the 14th century to the Gordons, by whom it was rebuilt. It was blown up in 1594, but was restored in 1602. It gradually fell into disrepair, some of its stones being utilized in the building of Huntly Lodge, the residence of the widow of the “last” duke of Gordon, who (in 1840) founded the adjoining Gordon schools to his memory. The Standing Stones of Strathbogie in Market Square have offered a permanent puzzle to antiquaries.