Dunnottar Castle

A narrow neck of land drops away and climbs again before the path reaches a flat-topped headland, cliffs falling close to 160 feet to the sea on every side. Surf and seabirds are the constant sound up here, and the salt wind off the North Sea rarely drops. The ruined walls and towers belong to Dunnottar Castle, a fortress on the Aberdeenshire coast some two miles south of Stonehaven.

What we know

The Gaelic name, Dùn Fhoithear — “fort on the shelving slope” — describes the same rocky ground still crossed to reach the ruins. The earliest written references are two sieges of “Dún Foither” recorded in the Annals of Ulster, in 681 and 694; the 681 attack has been read by some scholars as an assault by Brude, Pictish king of Fortriu, extending his power along the north-east coast. The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba records a further violent episode in 900, when Donald II — the first ruler styled rí Alban, king of Alba — was killed here during a Viking attack. Excavation in the 1980s found no clear evidence of an early-medieval fort on the headland itself; Pictish carved stones found on the nearby sea stack of Dunnicaer have led some to argue the early stronghold stood there instead.

By the 14th century a castle stood here in the more familiar sense. In 1336 Edward III of England ordered William Sinclair to refortify the partly ruined site as a forward base for his northern campaign; the Scottish regent Sir Andrew Murray recaptured and destroyed the English works within the year. The Keith family, Earls Marischal of Scotland, held Dunnottar from the 14th century into the 18th, and in the late 16th century George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal, converted the fortress into a residence — long, low ranges around a quadrangle, closer to contemporary English houses than to the tall Scottish tower tradition.

Charles II stayed at Dunnottar in July 1650, and his presence in Scotland drew Oliver Cromwell north to defeat the Scots at Dunbar that September. Through 1651–52 the Honours of Scotland — crown, sword and sceptre — were kept here from Cromwell, smuggled out during the blockade and buried under the floor of the Old Kirk at Kinneff. They were not recovered until the Restoration in 1660, after the garrison under Sir George Ogilvie had already surrendered to besiegers who found the vault empty. In 1685, 167 Covenanters — 122 men and 45 women — were packed for two months into a single cellar, the “Whigs’ Vault”, after Argyll’s rising against James VII; five died there. George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal, led cavalry for the Jacobites at Sheriffmuir in 1715; the estate was forfeited the following year, sold in 1720 to the York Buildings Company, who stripped and dismantled it. Restoration began only after Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray, bought the ruin in 1919 and his wife started a programme of repair.

The castle’s name travelled beyond its own walls: the early-13th-century Arthurian romance Roman de Fergus sends its hero here to retrieve a magic shield, and centuries later the ruins became a film location, used for portions of the 1990 Hamlet and as the model for Merida’s home in Disney’s Brave.

What is said

Local tradition holds that William Wallace captured Dunnottar from the English in 1297 and burned 4,000 prisoners of war alive in the castle church — a claim recorded only by the late medieval poet Blind Harry, and one usually read now as poetic exaggeration rather than an independently corroborated event. A chapel on the headland is said to have been founded by St Ninian in the 5th century; this too is a tradition rather than an established date, and the site’s first fortification remains otherwise uncertain.

What to see now

The main gate is still the way in: a curtain wall blocking a cleft in the cliffs, a portcullis, and an entrance passage that turns sharply underground through two tunnels cut in the rock. Benholm’s Lodging stands beside it, a five-storey building cut into the rock with three tiers of gun ports and a prison below its apartments. The late-14th-century keep, weathered and grey, still dominates the view on the approach, its stone-vaulted basement intact beneath later floors. Below the King’s Bedroom, named for Charles II’s stay, the Whigs’ Vault survives much as it was in 1685 — a low cellar about 52 by 15 feet, one window, cold stone. The 16th- and 17th-century palace ranges still trace their quadrangle, including the seven identical west-range lodgings and the footprint of a 120-foot gallery. At the south-east corner, the 13th-century chapel, consecrated in 1276, keeps its medieval walling and two original windows.

How to visit

Dunnottar is a paid-entry managed site; opening times and admission are set by the site operator and are not recorded in the sources used here. A free car park is signposted off the A92 south of Stonehaven, satnav postcode AB39 2TL, with an earth path running about 526 metres — roughly eight minutes — along the clifftop to the viewpoint above the ruins. Reaching the castle itself means a steep descent of around 219 steps, and the same climb back on the way out.