Photographs of Dunnottar Castle
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Dunnottar is a dramatic ruined cliff top fortress on the edge of the North sea just
outside Stonehaven in North East Scotland. Fortifications of one sort or another have been
perched on this rocky outcrop for most of the past two thousand years and probably much longer.
The very name "dun" is Pictish for fort and it is believed that St Ninian came to Dunnottar
in the late 400s, converting the Picts to Christianity and founding a chapel here. The Annals
of Ulster record a siege of Duin Foither in 681, at what was likely to have been Dunnottar.
The current buildings were probably started in the late 13th century and have been added to
regularly for about 500 years. It is most famous for being the only place left in Scotland
holding out for Charles II against Cromwell's forces in 1652 and was also being used for
the safe-keeping of the Honours of Scotland, the Crown Jewels, and for Charles II's personal papers.
The fortress was dismantled in 1718.
