Stonehaven & Dunnottar Castle

Sunday, 25 October we decided to visit the small fishing village of Stonehaven.

Mase had been there before and wanted us to see Dunnottar Castle (pronounced Dunutu - short vowel sounds) and at the same time try the Scottish style fish & chips (haddock and chips). So after the memorial meeting we headed to the village (about 13 miles from Aberdeen).

Stonehaven itself is very small, not much to say about it except that it's nestled in a protected bay which was often used by larger ships in days gone by to shelter from stormy weather. The coastline along this part of Scotland is quite high above the sea (I suppose you could call them cliffs - but they didn't seem quite so scary as cliffs I've walked along before) and you can see this in the photos.

Well we found a nice hotel/pub facing the small harbour at Stonehaven and went in there for lunch. As I've said before the hotels/pubs are different to Perth and are a pleasant, cosy, family friendly atmosphere - this one had lots of fishing exhibits around the walls which kept us busy while we waited for our order of haddock and chips...

The servings were large and the fish itself was lovely - however by about 2/3 of the way through I'd really had enough - not sure if it was the fat or the batter on the fish...but I must say I felt quite nauseous at the thought of eating any more. Jo said she had a funny tummy too but everyone else seemed fine and enjoyed theirs. I'd summarise my personal experience of Scottish haddock and chips as not worth trying (maybe it would be different somewhere else?)...

Anyway after lunch we were going to walk to Dunnottar Castle - about 1.25 miles from Stonehaven - so that helped the unsettled stomachs settle down.

Initially it was a steep climb to get to the cliffs from the harbour village and once at the top we had a nice view of some bays ahead, fields and the North Sea. We saw some rabbits on the way, much to the kids delight, but we made too much noise and frightened most of them away. We saw plenty of rabbit holes along the pathway and presumably there were many warrens beneath our feet!

Probably took us about half an hour to walk there - it was pretty cold and windy (with a hint of rain coming) but we had our rain jackets.

The approach to the castle is quite impressive - it looks like it's separated from the mainland and the old entry to the castle is actually through the mountain itself. It's surrounded on three sides by the North Sea and you can see why it had such fantastic natural fortress advantages. It's probably for this reason that the Castle site has a history dating back to the 5th Century but presumably many changes occurred during that time period. (Make sure you double click on the landscape photo of the Castle.)

The Castle grounds were extensive but in various stages of ruin - including two wings for rooms, large vegetable garden area, a large fresh water well, stables, prison, and many other features. The staircases we climbed were very narrow, winding and unevenly stepped.

The children really enjoyed looking through this Castle and there was some interesting history that goes with it. In brief....when we were at Edinburgh Castle we saw the Honours of Scotland (the Scottish royal crown, sceptre, sword and sheath). These had been sent to Dunnottar Castle when Oliver Cromwell (enemy of the monarchy), who had already destroyed the English crown jewels, wanted to destroy this last Scottish icon of the monarchy.

Anyway (after that little foray into the past), the Honours of Scotland were taken to Dunnottar Castle and held there. But it was not long before the Castle was under siege by Cromwell's army and seventy older men inside withstood the seige for eight months. However, when large cannons arrived and heavy fire began on the Castle, they surrendered - but not with the Honours of Scotland.

Somehow during the seige the Honours were smuggled out (apparently by the Minister's Wife) and hidden in a church. After many years they were returned to Edinburgh Castle, where we saw them on our recent trip....

The other interest bit of history is about a group of 167 men and women (Whigs) who refused to acknowledge the King's supremacy in spiritual things and were consequently imprisoned in Dunnottar Castle. We went into the vault where they were put - a gloomy, dank cellar. They were held there for about 9 weeks with no sanitation and food had to be 'bought' from the guards.

Some who tried to escape, but were caught, were tortured, others fell from the cliffs to their death, others died of 'natural' causes - due to the awful conditions.

After we'd had a look around the Castle, we went down to the small bay beside it. It was the usual smooth pebbled beach and the kids had fun walking over some of the larger rocks. We then walked around the bay to the other side, climbed up the hill and resumed our return walk along the pathway back to Stonehaven. This was about 4.30pm - reason we set back so 'early' is that daylight saving has ended over here and so now it's getting dark at 5pm (which also means we are now 8 hours behind Perth).

Anyway, we had a lovely walk and then drove back to Aberdeen.

The other thing I've also included in this blog is a photo of a typical Noddy story toadstool - you know the red roofed toadstool with white lumps on it - well we saw them!