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Huntly Scottish Gaelic:Srath Bhalgaidh or Hunndaidh
Gordon Square, Huntly
Huntly Location withinAberdeenshire
Population	4,550 (2022)[1]
OS grid reference	NJ5353
Council area	Aberdeenshire
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	HUNTLY
Postcode district	AB54
Dialling code	01466
Police	Scotland
Fire	Scottish
Ambulance	Scottish
UK Parliament	Gordon and Buchan
Scottish Parliament	Aberdeenshire West
List of places UK Scotland 57°26′46″N2°47′17″W / 57.446°N 2.788°W /57.446; -2.788

Huntly (Scottish Gaelic:Srath Bhalgaidh orHunndaidh) is a town inAberdeenshire,Scotland, formerly known asMilton of Strathbogie or simplyStrathbogie. It had a population of 4,460^[2] in 2004 and is the site ofHuntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlements includeKeith andRothiemay. Both Huntly and the surrounding district of Gordon are named for atown andfamily that originated in theBorder country.^[3]

Huntly is the historic home of theGordon Highlanders regiment, which traditionally recruited throughout the North-East of Scotland.^[4] Huntly has a primary school (Gordon Primary) and a secondary school (The Gordon Schools) beside Huntly Castle.

Huntly is the home of the Dean's bakers, producers ofshortbread biscuits. In November 2007, the Dean's of Huntly opened their new visitor’s centre.^[5]

Four of the owls from the local falconry centre were featured in theHarry Potter films.^[6]

Settlement around the confluence of theBogie andDeveron rivers dates back to theNeolithic period. The settlement's remains and the remains of anIron Agehillfort have been excavated on Battlehill on the outskirts of the town. During the first millennium CE the area was dominated by thePictish culture. A very large Pictish settlement and vitrified hillfort was situated locally atTap o' Noth inStrathbogie.

The site was strategically important, allowing for control of the routes fromMoray intoStrathdon andDeeside. The firstmotte-and-bailey castle on this settlement was erected byDonnchadh II, Earl of Fife, theGaelic speaking 2ndMormaer of Fife, c.1180. The lands were transferred to theBerwickshireAnglo-Norman family, theGordons, in 1352 in retaliation for MacDuff’s descendant,David of Strathbogie, defecting fromRobert I toEdward II’s cause on the eve of theBattle of Bannockburn.

The settlement at the confluence of the Bogie and the Deveron was known asMilton of Strathbogie or The Raws of Strathbogie until 1508.

Despite theboggy lands in the vicinity at that time, the castle at Strathbogie became a key centre for the Gordons of Moray over the following centuries.^{[citation needed]} As the family built power through warfare anddynastic marriage, they became the dominant family in the North-East of Scotland, with theclan chief acquiring the informal title of Cock o' the North.^{[citation needed]} As a result, a thriving settlement serving the evolving palace complex developed. The settlement became aburgh of barony in 1472. In 1508, the Gordons received aroyal charter enabling them to rename Milton of Strathbogie & the castle to Huntly – the name of theirancestral seat in Berwickshire.^{[citation needed]}

During theScottish Reformation, the Gordons were among the leadingCatholic families in the country and heavily embroiled inMary, Queen of Scots’ conflict with thereformed church and theprotestantmagnates. Huntly castle was bombarded and sacked in 1562 (by Mary) and in 1594 byJames VI.

After the restoration of Gordon titles, the town continued to develop during the 17th and 18th centuries both as amarket town and an adjunct to the Gordons’ palace with a wide range ofmerchants andartisans serving the surrounding countryside – in the mid-17th century the town hosted 4 separate glovers.

The adjacentparishes ofDunbennan and Kinnoir were consolidated into a single parish of Huntly in 1727, though each of these livings had been in the gift of theMarquess of Huntly for centuries. During this century, theDuke of Gordon also commenced redeveloping the town as aplanned-town withgrid-iron streets.

The 18th centuries saw the development of theflax industry and associated cottage industries inheckling,spinning,bleaching andweaving, though the trade was inhibited in the longer term by poor transport infrastructure toBanff andAberdeen.Smugglingwhisky was also an important trade at this period until the industry was licensed in 1823.

In the 19th century, following thepost-Napoleonic slump in thelinen trade, the town experienced another period of growth with the establishment ofrail transport in 1845 coupled with a shift frompeasant farming to capitalist agriculture. Huntly became an important market and shipping centre whilst its surrounding parishes depopulated.

In 1836 the town and the Gordon estates passed to the Sussex-based 5thDuke of Richmond byinheritance. Ownership of thefeu and much of the land and property remained in the ownership of the Dukes of Richmond and Gordon until August 1936 when all the property and feus in the town along with much surrounding farmland was sold atauction atHuntly Town Hall in order to paydeath duties on theducal estates.^[7]

Though the town’s population has varied slightly over the 20th century – with a net outwardmigration after the2nd World War – the town in 2018 had a population of 4,650. This compares with 4,229 in 1911. Significant demographic growth was over the course of the 19th century from 1000 in 1800 to 3,600 in 1861.

Huntly is home toDeveron Projects, an arts organisation that invites artists from all over the world to come and live and work in the town.^[8][9] Since 1995 it has worked with a 'town is the venue' methodology, connecting artists, communities and places.^[9][10] It hosts artists and projects that explore local, regional and global topics, such asforestry,geology,botany,foraging,anthropology, history, politics and art. Over 100 renowned artists have spent time in the town, includingRoman Signer^[11] andHamish Fulton.^[12]

Walking is often used as a medium to bring people together for these projects, and Deveron Projects has a Walking Institute that commissions artists to make walks.^[8] Their annualSlow Marathon started in 2012 in collaboration withEthiopian artist Mihret Kebede.^[13] Deveron Projects also runs a community kitchen and gardening projects.^[14] In 2013 Deveron Projects won Huntly the Creative Place Award, which recognises 'creativity across Scotland’s smaller communities'.^[15]

Brown Hill is located in Huntly parish.^[16]

There is salmon and trout fishing on the RiversDeveron andBogie, which are administered by the River Deveron Salmon Fisheries Board. Its other principal outdoor activities includegolf,Nordic Skiing inClashindarroch Forest, walking,mountain biking andRugby. The localfootball team isHuntly F.C., the localrugby union side isHuntly RFC.^[17]

Huntly railway station is arailway station serving the town. The station is managed byScotRail and is on theAberdeen to Inverness Line. The station opened on 20 September 1854.^[18]

• Ian Cameron, father of British Prime Minister,David Cameron, was fromGlass, Huntly; he was born atBlairmore House.
• Ronald Center (1913–1973), composer, lived there from 1943 until his death in 1973, teaching first at the Gordon Schools, then privately.
• Willie Donald (1953–2022), first-class cricketer and former president ofCricket Scotland
• Iona Fyfe (born 1998), Scots singer and musician.^[19]
• Elizabeth Gordon, Duchess of Gordon (née Brodie; 1794 – 1864), was a Scottish noblewoman and church patron
• John Henderson (born 1973), a PDC darts player, is from Huntly.
• James Legge (1815–1897), scholar and missionary to China, was born in Huntly and educated there and at King's College Aberdeen, before leaving to his first mission post in Malacca in 1839. Across the next 43 years he worked in Hong Kong translating all the classic books of the Confucian canon in a huge series of books, a set still considered to be the gold standard of English translations today. He frequently returned to Huntly across his life in China, bringing three young Chinese lads to live there and get "a good Scottish education" in 1845. By the time they returned to China in 1848 they had all been invited to meet Queen Victoria, then a lively young woman. Legge retired from his mission work in Hong Kong in 1873, was named the first Oxford Professor of Chinese in 1876, and lived there until his death. His father Ebenezer Legge had been Mayor of Huntly, and the Legge family home is still in use, on the main square.
• George MacDonald (1824–1905), writer, and influence upon JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. Some of his novels, especially the Robert Falconer and Alec Forbes of Howglen play partly in Huntly, even if the name of the town is changed, and give an introduction to the life in Huntly in the 19th century.
• William Milne (1785–1822), born atKennethmont near Huntly, was the second British Protestant missionary to China (followingRobert Morrison). He was the founding headmaster of the first Anglo-Chinese school,Ying Wa College, in 1818 atMalacca. (This school was subsequently moved to Hong Kong by James Legge in 1843 and still exists.)
• George Philip, (1800–1882) was a cartographer, map publisher and founder of the publishing houseGeorge Philip & Son Ltd. He was born in Huntly.
• John Perie (1831–1874) recipient of theVictoria Cross, born in Huntly.
• Jo Pitt, para-equestrian (1979-2013), was from Huntly.^[20]
• Andrew Young, (born 1992)cross-country skier with severalWorld Cup podiums.
• William Mellis Christie (1829–1900), founder of the CanadianMr. Christie brand of cookies and biscuits.^[21]

• Experience Huntly website
• Gazetteer of Scotland (1836) entry for Huntly, accessed 28 December 2011
• Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-5) entry for Huntly, accessed 28 December 2011
• Gordon Primary
• The Gordon Schools

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