Retired senior police officer turned poet Albert Thomson has seen considerable success in his craft in recent years, producing a series of volumes of poetry in the Doric language, the vernacular of his homeland in North East Scotland. Albert is also a history buff, in particular on Scotland's castellated architecture, and a great authority on the local history of his native North East. The Hay Chiefs' seat of Old Slains Castle provides the inspiration for a new poem, which Albert has generously dedicated to his friend, Clan Hay Archivist Alan Hay, on the occasion of the latter's retirement after many years as Chairman of the Royal Celtic Society.