[June 2021] After having a meal at a restaurant in the countryside of Stonehaven in southern Aberdeenshire, which was our excursion from Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, we took a taxi to visit Dunnottar Castle, the destination of the day.
Getting off the taxi at the car park, we walked toward the ruins of the castle.
The scenery was just amazing!
Fortunately, the weather was perfect, and the terrain of the green promontory spreading in front of us in the contrast with the deep blue sky and the deep blue sea was so interesting that I took a lot of pictures.
My husband pointed out, “It’s kind of like Civita di Bagnoregio in Italy,” and that’s exactly what it was.
There was a bridge over there at Bagnoregio and we could walk straight up, but here is more natural.
Once you go down quite a bit, then you go up and arrive at where the castle is.
You have to have your ticket ready when you enter the Castle site.
They do not sell the tickets on the spot.
Ticket types are divided into morning and afternoon sections, and we had purchased tickets for admission after 1:30 pm before the trip, printed them out, and brought them with us.
This is part of the Covid measures, so I think it is a temporary arrangement.
The grounds of the castle were larger than we saw from a distance, and it was worth seeing because a lot of buildings were still standing.
I wondered who built the castle in such a place, but it seems that there was already a citadel in the 9th century.
Donald II, who is said to be the first King of Scotland, was killed here and the castle was partly destroyed, and from the 14th century, it was owned by the Keith family, a leading Scottish clan.
The clan was promoted to the Count, but the last count of the clan, George Keith, was convicted of treason in 1715 because he was a Jacobite, and the castle was sold to a mining company.
Apparently, George Keith himself fled to the European continent, and after that he got good jobs there and had a long life.
Aside from the history, the attraction here is probably this position.
The view of the sea from the ruins of the castle was also wonderful.
There was a part that reproduced the indoors at that time.
Also, there was a cave-like part where the ghost of a woman in green clothes searching for lost children appears.
We did not see her, though.
There were quite many tourists visiting the castle.
I heard Spanish, French, German languages, and surprisingly many Chinese, too.
They were all young people, so they were probably students studying in Scotland.
At this time when Covid regulations are still in place, there should be very few travellers from overseas.
After enjoying the castle grounds, we went down and up again to the mainland and looked at the castle from another angle.
Even though it is such a wonderful tourist destination, there was no visitor centre nor souvenirs such as Dunnottar buns sold for tourists, and there was only a simple shop for food and drink in the corner of the car park.
What’s more, only one person was busy with everything, the service was slow, and there was a long queue.
It happened to be a sunny weekend, so there may have been a lot of visitors, but otherwise it may usually be quiet.
