When we first were planning the trip, Cathie asked me what I wanted to do. I had two things that I wanted to see. I had come across a website with a picture of some castle ruins sitting on the edge of the North Sea. The name of the castle we Dunnottar and it was right outside Stonehaven. (I highly recommend clicking for the full image of the castle pictures.)
Dunnottar Castle
We found it, parked the car and started the hike. The ruins sit at the top of a big rock, surrounded on three sides by cliffs. You walk down 178 steps, then up 86 (Alexandra was counting) to get to the castle. There was a little complaining about the steps, but it wasn't too bad.
The ruins are substantial. The fact that they were able to build something like this in this location around 1250 AD is very impressive. However, when you stop and think about it, they are doing this on the edge of the North Sea. We had our mildest day of the trip so far, 45F and only about 12 knot winds. That's a wind chill around 39F.
We ended up walking the entire grounds of the castle. They had enough structures for about 150 people, plus they had stables for specially trained ponies. They even had a lion for a while.
It is surrounded by spectacular scenery. There are birds nesting on the cliffs and puffins in the water. We saw 30 to forty dolphins swimming by.
On the way out, I hiked out to a point to get a different view of the castle.
We had lunch down at the harbor in Stonehaven. It is a very pretty little fishing village.
After lunch, we went to Drum Castle where we found out it was closed on Wednesdays.
Drum Castle
So we went to Crathes Castle.
Crathes Castle
It was built in the late 1500s. It was used by the family until it was given to the National Trust for Scotland in the 1950s.
That was the end of our day. We drove back to the Raemar House for a nice quiet evening.
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