Dunnottar Castle

Dunnottar Castle is a dramatic and evocative ruin. As you wander around the extensive buildings you are almost surrounded by sea with gulls and other seabirds wheeling and screaming around the cliffs below you. If the outline is a little familiar, this may be because Dunnottar Castle was the location for the 1990 film version of Hamlet starring Mel Gibson.

Even if there was no castle at Dunnottar, the site would immediately catch the eye - an enormous flat-topped rock with sheer cliffs on three sides. This site was chosen in Pictish times as place of strength and by Saint Ninian as a place of retreat. Dunnottar is more than a topographical curiosity since this rock and the buildings on it have reflected in miniature much of the rich and tragic story of Scottish history.

William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots and the Marquis of Montrose have all graced the Castle with their presence. Most famously though, it was at Dunnottar Castle that a small garrison held out against the might of Cromwell's army for eight months and saved the Scottish Crown Jewels, the 'Honours of Scotland', from destruction.

From the car park the dominant building viewed is the 14th century Keep or Tower House, a little battered by Cromwell's cannons, but still intact. This is just one of the eleven different buildings which comprise Dunnottar Castle which also includes barracks, lodgings, stables and storehouses.

At the far end of the rock, in sharp contrast to the old tower, is an elegant quadrangle. This is bounded on three sides by domestic buildings of the 17th century, including, for its time, one of the largest ballrooms in Scotland extending to some 35 metres. The fourth side is formed by the Castle's 13th century chapel - a relic of the time that William Wallace burnt the early wooden Castle with the occupying English garrison inside. The chapel, one of the very few stone buildings, has survived to tell the tale.