Balvenie Castle, in Glen Fiddich near Dufftown, is a regular subject in this collection. Built by the Comyn family in the 1200s, it was taken by Robert the Bruce in 1308 and granted to the Black Douglases, whose most powerful figure, Archibald 'the Grim', acquired it through marriage around 1362 and extended the castle further. After the Black Douglases' downfall in 1455, it passed to the Earls of Atholl, and Mary, Queen of Scots visited on 4 September 1562 during her first progress through the north of Scotland.
Duff House, in Banff, is another landmark that recurs throughout this collection. The architect William Adam designed this ambitious baroque mansion in the 1730s for William Duff, Lord Braco, later 1st Earl Fife, but a bitter dispute over costs led to a five-year legal case and work stalling in 1741 before the interior was finished. Lord Braco reportedly never spent a night there, and the house was eventually gifted to the towns of Banff and Macduff in 1907, and is now a country house gallery.
Postcards from Macduff, Portsoy and Buckie appear in this collection too, and we add new stock regularly.
