ONE of Scotland’s only Wild West villages has hit a major milestone as it celebrates its 20th year of “shootouts” and cowboy reenactments.
Founded 20 years ago, Tranquility is a small village of eight wooden buildings in the countryside outside Huntly, Aberdeenshire, and has attracted visitors from all around the world.
Alistair Baranowski said “time has flown” since he founded the Wild West village which is hidden from the public road by a strip of forest near Forgue.
Tranquility has all the conveniences that any late-19th century pioneer would recognise, including a saloon, bank, general store, barbers and telegraph office.
Each of the wooden buildings has its own details, historic touches and stories to help create the perfect backdrop for any would-be cowboys or bandits.
Asked by Forres Gazette what he felt about the village 20 years on, 72-year-old Baranowski told the newspaper: “Oh it’s good, but it’s never finished.
“It’s like the Forth Road Bridge.”
He added: “I don’t know – the time has just flown.”
The village has been used for several music videos, sketches and short films and is also home to the Northern Rough Riders re-enactment group.
Baranowski, a former geography and history teacher, love for the Old West was sparked by watching western movies as a child.
“Saturday morning cinema came first, before we even had a TV, and there was always a western,” he said.
“That was the highlight of the week, and it was a dream come true when Grampian TV came along and they were showing westerns every single night of the week, seven days a week.”
Following a visit to another Wild West village near Gatwick Airport, Baranowski finally made the decision to make his own little town.
He said: “Well, if they can do it, I can do it.”
When Baranowski first bought Tranquility, it was just an overgrown field of grass, and he had to enlist the help of a local farmer to help get the land into workable condition.
He recalled his shock that planners at Aberdeenshire Council’s Huntly office approved his planning application to build the village.
Asked whether he believed his project had brought people together and created a community, the retired teacher said: “Absolutely.”
“I think they enjoy the comradeship and that,” he added.
“On a lot of weekends we will come and cook up meals, and we will [do] shootouts.
“Some people obviously like the dressing up as well, and the young folk like shooting the guns.
“People just enjoy it. That's the bottom line, really.”
