It’s Friday night, and with the working week behind us, it’s time to stock up and hit the road once again! The only question is: where to go for the night?
After a bit of brainstorming, I uncovered a hidden treasure on Park 4 Night – Fetternear Palace, also known as the Bishop’s Palace, which was the home of the medieval Bishops of Aberdeen since the 1200s.
Located near the village of Kemnay, this stunning building faced a devastating fire in 1919 that led to its downfall. We hopped on our bikes and uncovered a few secrets along the way, including some thrilling bike trails through the woodlands
0:00 – Coming Up
1:30 – Get on your bikes and ride
3:10 – Have drone, will fly
8:00 – Interior changes
13:00 – No coffee, denied!
Filmed mostly on:
Samsung S23 – https://amzn.to/4eTJqfa
Rode Video Mic Me-C – https://amzn.to/3Nbdw1U
GoPro Hero 4 – https://amzn.to/4eTJqfa
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i was racking my brains this week trying to
think of somewhere to take the van when I stumbled across this i found it on parked
for night it’s a spot just outside Kem near Univeri where there’s the ruins of an old
bishop’s palace and a handy parking spot just nearby so with work done
for the week I jumped in the van stopped off to grab a few essentials and hit the roads now the
plan was to park it fetter near jump on the bike and head off in search of the
ruins from Google Maps it was a wee bit difficult to gauge just how far it would
be i just hoped it wouldn’t be too far let me lead in the way got keys after cycling around for a
little bit we weren’t quite sure we were on the right path so we
did the unthinkable ask this guy excuse me is the old bishop’s ruins down here okay it’s best way there this way okay so we turn we turn right in the bridge back
that way then spotted on thank you very much you know I can kind of understand that they
must get thousands of visitors a year just milling past your living room window and
since I brought the drone along the last thing I want to do is annoy folk and
poke the bear so back round the way we came and as you maybe expect we missed this by one signpost so this is Fetaneer House or the
Bishop’s Palace originally built back in the early 1200s it was a place for the bishops
of Aberdine and as with many properties of the time it’s been rebuilt and enlarged over the
years it became the seat of the Leslie family in the 1500s and lived on in various guises until
a fire in the early 1900s brought the mansion’s time as a home to an end with all the damage it’s
pretty well fenced off but I took the drone along so yeah that’s going to give me the chance
to have a little peek in through the windows genuinely I have never heard of this place before
i just stumbled across it and I’m glad I did with our exploring done it was
time to head back towards the car park now neither myself or Ben
was in a rush so we just took the long way around and I’m glad we did
because on our way back we spotted something now I’ll apologize now for the
poor GoPro quality i’ve been burning through microphones for this thing thank you team
and because it was in its protective cases well yeah the picture quality is not
the best but we stumbled across a bike track both of us are in our 40s so we
did the sensible thing and went for a shot although to be honest I didn’t put any
effort in i even ran out of puff on the hill and it turns out as well there’s not one bike
track but at least two well two that we find anyway so that’s part one done the old Bishop’s
pat i’m not entirely sure how much peace I’m going to get here because what park for night
didn’t show was that there’s a bike park right in the car park so yeah we’ll see probably
won’t be too bad in fairness and I am only 5 minutes from everything in the center of the
village the other thing we noticed is there’s a we coffee shop just on the grounds of the
estate so I guess that’s breakfast sorted sh sh sh sh so that’s one pretty big change from the
last video maybe it doesn’t look like it yet we have something resembling
a bed which should be pretty cool just have to um excuse the mess we’ll get it
set up and that’s something resembling a mitten honestly I just need to spend a day finishing
up the storage and getting things put in place one potential issue and I’m not sure if
it’s going to pick up or not there we go well with the cycling done and
my mess finally cleared it was time to think about settling in for the evening so the last thing I want to do is jinx this but
yeah it’s been pretty peaceful apart from a couple of minutes ago there was some guys walking past
I guess you know if you live out in the sticks kind of the main road back into town but yeah
it’s been good fun so far so I have broken out the six degree north non-alcoholic stuff so yeah
it’s been pretty peaceful i’ve just spent the last couple hours here just you know sorting through
video footage getting all on the laptop um and there’s been very little movement this is probably
the most peaceful sort of stealth camp I’ve I’ve done with the transit so far touchwood so when
you go into the Feter estate there’s a couple of houses just literally there you go past them and
there’s what looks to be like a little coffee van or something and to be honest we were too busy
concentrating on pedalling but I think I’ll go there for breakfast in the morning if I can get
a bacon roll and a coffee I’ll be made up um I’m probably about 5 miles or so away from Castle
Fraser it’s over that way on the other way out of town towards um Money Musk the weather’s supposed
to be really good all weekend which is unheard of for Aberdine so I might just jump back on the
bike and go down to Castle Fraser there’s also another sort of off-road bike trail um I forget
what it’s called i don’t need to look up in the morning but that’s another potential so I’ve got
options and yeah like I said so far so good it’s just been me my lightly salted kettle chips my
non-alcoholic beer so I think I might do a little bit more sorting i’ve tidied up the van is now
sleepable um I might just chill for a little bit and then call it a night now I have had a couple
of people asking about the writing on the little cushion um after my mom died a few years ago my
mom’s cousin took some of my mom’s old shirts but we got the ashes she put some of the ashes in and
basically made us these little pillows that we can take wherever we go so I’ve never really used
it it’s always just sat in a cupboard at home and I’d like to think you know wherever I take
the van now they’ve got this little cushion with me i’ve kind of taken a little bit of mum with me
now because we lost dad earlier this year as well that was a couple of months ago um I also have
a really weird idea for taking my dad with me or taking a bit of dad with me i’m not taking
his ashes around that’ just be weird but I’ve got an idea of how I can kind of you know do
something similar for him as well so yeah it it genuinely is coming together ben who was out in
the bike with me earlier that’s my boss from work um he and the rest of the guys at work have been
pretty pretty damn good at helping me getting you know bits and pieces for the van even he’s kind of
surprised how well it’s turning out there’s still bits to do i still need to finish the curtain rail
i still need to carpet line the walls but I mean I can throw the bike in the back i can throw
a bag in the back i can go away for a night it’s touch wood it’s working out well i slept so well i’m not sure if it was the cycle
in the fresh air that helped but when I put my phone down I dropped straight off and I didn’t
wake up once in the middle of the night it’s a miracle morning i don’t want to move it’s actually
pretty comfortable that was a good night’s sleep that was me till about 5 6:00 this morning
which to be honest at the moment is about when I’d wake up at home anyway bed was comfy
and there was nobody about the only people who started turning up are like 7:00 this morning so
turns out this is a good spot now to find coffee well I built myself up for this didn’t
I you know I’m a bit gutted after I clocked that place last night in my cycle i
thought that’ll be a nice we coffee stop oh well into town so the car park I stopped
at Fetter it’s literally on the banks of the river dawn and there were quite a few dog
walkers out even first thing in the morning so I headed across the bridge into the
village and found a we cafe to stop at for a coffee and a bite to eat i think I must
have been hungry this vanished in an instant ah the Caddy the uh thing that got me
into all this i do wonder if my one’s ever going to be back on the road i know
it’s had a bit more trouble since I sold it i know the engine did fail which I was
hoping it wouldn’t do after we did the injector seals but I guess damage was done
but she’s been sold she’s been transported so hopefully someone will get use out of her
on the other side of the bridge from where I was there was a bit of a clearing which felt
like the perfect spot to get the drone out again Go go go go be You know I had all these good intentions of
going out to Castle Fraser but it’s too nice i’m enjoying the peace and quiet out here
so I’ll save that for next time thank you for watching hope you’ve enjoyed my little
wanderer in Kemney um I did talk about some of the changes to the van last night although I
realize I haven’t actually shown you what they are so we’ll do that next Sunday shall we see
you then going to talk about bloody midgetes
5 Comments
This is a proper hidden gem, and definitely somewhere I'll be going back to when I feel a bit braver on the bike 🤣
I called it Martin …I telt Mandy the coffee shop will be shut because they knew you were coming 😊😊😊😂😂😂
This looks a lovely place – will have to visit!
You should do the Dinnie Stones in Potarch. See how you get on
Hilarious how even then, they were doing neo-Gothic😏 The palace is a MAGNIFICENT example of the sort of louche reimagining so favoured by Victorian industrialists who wanted to live in a castle – only here, the bishop (who must be admired for his taste!!) pastiched the home of his brother, the earl!!
It really would have been a comfortable pleasure palace for His Grace to inhabit and entertain the rich and powerful from near and far – all while tipping the campest, Kenneth Williams-esque nod to the properly butch, castellated fortress the bishop's relative – the temporal lord – occupied.
I think that medieval prince of the church was quite likely a real character. I shall likely look into who he was and if i find anything rsally interesting, i'll let you know!