Dunnottar Castle : Stonehaven, Scotland: aka: MY CASTLE

Today we hopped on a bus and traveled for about 3 hours to a town called Aberdeen in Scotland and then took a taxi for about 25 minutes back down to another town called Stonehaven. This is where my ancestors (Clan Keith) lived in a castle for a time. This is on my mom's side of the family. I'm not sure if they built the whole thing, but I believe there was a tower that one of them built. Anyway, it's called Dunnottar Castle. It's in ruins now, but still has many standing buildings. As you can see in the pictures, it was a very rainy, windy, cold day. This was the one thing I wanted to see the most and out of all the days in Europe, this had to be the worst weather day, although the tail end of Sweden was pretty bad too. Oh well, we're here, I can't believe it!!!! It's still a very beautiful place, rain or not. At least there wasn't any snow!

Over there you can see Dunnottar Castle, you may have to click on the picture to see it better. It's there in the distance, I promise.

Here's a sign showing Stonehaven and Dunnottar Castle. WE'RE HERE!!!!!! Pinch me, I think I'm dreaming.

Jake and I in front of a sign with the castle behind us. We had to walk about 20 minutes to the castle. Many, many steps going down and then back up.

There she is. I wish it was more clear, but what else can I expect on a rainy day next to the ocean.

You can see the pathway and a little hole at the bottom in that massive rock. The castle is just behind it. You can kind of see a little part on top.

We loved this rock work on some of the steps going into the castle.

Here's the layout of the castle.

Some of the building ruins. I just loved all the green grass. So not use to this in Arizona. Do you think all the rain has to do something with it?

Mom sporting her lovely blue poncho

There's a grassy circle where a deep well or cistern is located. When it was excavated last century, they found four brass pans, a small French sword, five cannon balls, part of a Dutch pot, and one and a half silver teaspoons.

Breathtaking views

This dark, small area is called the Whigs' Vault. On 24 May 1685 to the end of July, they imprisoned 167 men and women, whose only crime was refusing to accept the Episcopalian style of church that Charles II imposed on Scotland. They were held for 9 weeks with little food and no sanitation.

You can see the outline of a fireplace and chimney. This was called the Smithy or forge.

We went up inside the Towerhouse or Keep. Mom poked her head out of one of the windows.

Jake and I sitting inside this huge sit-in fireplace inside the Towerhouse or Keep

Here's the Scottish crown jewels that were safely hidden here at Dunnottar Castle and again safely smuggled out so that an Oliver Cromwell wouldn't destroy them like he already did with the English crown jewels.

While we were waiting for our cab driver to return and take us back to Aberdeen, we saw a line of cows walking down the country street followed by their owner on a quad and a dog making sure all was well.

Back in Aberdeen, we ate lunch in this restuarant. This is where we tried the famous "haggis" from Scotland. It's basically the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep minced and mixed up with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt and baked inside the intestine. Sounds yummy right?? It actually was quite tasty. I would defenitly eat that again.

I'm going to plan on coming back someday. I love the people and the place here in Scotland and have a crazy love for their accent too. It was a crazy day trying to get to the castle, but we made it. We planned on going to see other sites that my ancestors inhabited, like the town of Peterhead and another castle in ruins, but Dunnottar was the main castle of importance. I just love the idea of walking where and touching things that my ancestors once did. I have a special place in my heart for geneology and where and who I came from. I can't wait to meet them all one day.