Dunnottar Castle has long been considered the safest place in Scotland. At all times, the royals, in the event of a misunderstanding on the part of the people, fled here together, and sighed with relief when the gates of Dunnottar were closed behind their backs. Of course, not everyone enjoyed staying in this castle. Here witches were burned, and liberals were sent to the next world. But let's start in order.
He drove the poor Picts …
The first mention of the castle dates back to 681. Its name from the ancient Pictish language is translated quite prosaically - "Fortress on a hill", from which it becomes clear that the builders of the castle did not have a lot of imagination in choosing names.
Why was the castle built in this place? The answer is visible to the naked eye, it is enough to pay attention to the relief of the surrounding area. Judge for yourself: a rocky, inaccessible promontory juts out from the coast far into the cold North Sea. An even more impregnable fortress stands on the cape. There are no approaches to it either from water or from land, with the exception of a narrow road cut below, along the rocks. The road has been done so cleverly that five to ten archers in shifts, with breaks for lunch and healthy sleep, can defend it and, accordingly, the castle, from a whole army of enemies for days on end. In addition to this road, there is also a completely inconspicuous path, which also allows you to get to the castle from land. But, firstly, the enemies should not know anything about it, and secondly, it is even easier to defend it than the main road. In general, upon closer acquaintance with Dunnottar, there is a feelingthat all the fairy-tale castles in which unsympathetic characters live (cannibals, dragons and others) were subsequently copied from him.
However, despite the Pictish name of the castle, the researchers have not yet figured out who actually built it? Perhaps it was the Picts, who for a long time were positioned as cruelly victims of the bloodthirsty Scots. They say that the Picts founded the first wooden fortress here, but were expelled, then returned, staged a bloody massacre, were expelled again, and so on.
According to another version, when the Picts were finally cornered (or even completely exterminated), the first Scottish saint Ninian built something like a church on this place at the end of the 4th century.
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Stone instead of wood
Be that as it may, the Vikings soon appeared instead of the Picts and put forward their claims to the possession of such an attractive place in terms of strategy. By that time, there was already a fully-fledged fortress that belonged to the Scottish king Donald, nicknamed the insane.
Mad Donald fought bravely with the Vikings, defending his rights to the castle and was so carried away by the process that he even died the death of the brave, and, completely in vain - the overseas guests nevertheless captured Dunnottar and took him apart. Later, the heirs of Donald put the castle back together, but then English kings appeared on the horizon, and the story of the capture, destruction and revival of the castle was repeated several times.
Beginning in 1100, Dunnottar was no longer dismantled, and was limited only to its capture. The rebels conquered it from the kings, the Scots from the British. In the 13th century, the Scottish national hero Wallace once again took the castle from the British crown, and the soldiers of the English garrison, who courageously hid in the local church, burned it along with the church.
In the XIV century, the English king Edward III took back the castle and sent there, in addition to soldiers, masons and carpenters, to turn the fortress into a stronghold of the British crown. But he failed. The subsequent series of wars did not give him the opportunity to properly fortify the castle.
During the wars, the Scots returned to Dunnottar. And just they, under the leadership of their next national hero Andrew Murray, demolished all the wooden buildings, replaced them with stone ones, built a keep (a powerful residential tower) in the center and surrounded all this splendor with stone walls. From that moment on, Dunnottar became a truly impregnable castle and, since the 16th century, as we have already said, the crowned heads came here to wait out the unrest in safety.
Vault of the Liberals
In the 16th century, something like a holy inquisition sat in this castle. In any case, these gentlemen were engaged in actively burning witches right here in the yard.
During the period of civil wars (1642-1648) the castle was besieged by Oliver Cromwell. But he did this not at all out of patriotic awakenings, but after hearing that royal regalia are kept in Dunnottar. However, when the castle was still captured, no regalia could be found. According to one of the versions, they were carried out under the cover of darkness by the servants loyal to the monarchy, according to the other, the commander of the garrison hid everything of value in the local church so deftly that the rebels could not find anything. In any case, after the restoration of the monarchy, the regalia reappeared intact, and are now kept in the Edinburgh Museum.
In 1685, a group of Covenanters (supporters of the Scottish national movement in defense of the Presbyterian Church), along with their families, were locked in the castle cellars for refusing to submit to the English king for religious reasons. The king did not specify why it was religion that prevented these people from recognizing his power, but simply tortured most of them to death, and sent the few who remained to distant colonies to settle. Since then, these cellars have been called the Liberal Vault. The owner of the castle, despite the fact that he generously provided his courtyard and cellars for the royal bloody fun, was soon accused of high treason and went after the rest of the victims of the royal regime.
Hamlet and the ghosts
And now the XX century has come. The castle, or rather what was left of it, was bought by the Viscountess Codre, who invested a lot of money on its restoration in the "style of the Middle Ages". She succeeded quite well - in 1990 it was here that the film "Hamlet" with Mel Gibson in the title role was filmed practically without any decorations.
Of course, one of the main attractions of the castle for tourists is the ghosts living there. There are quite a few of them. For example, a young soldier guarding the secret entrance to the castle (the one to which the path we have already mentioned leads). Then comes the Viking, obviously wondering - with what stone to begin to dismantle the stubborn fortress? The Viking is often accompanied by a dog - also a ghost. There is also a certain lady in green. It is not clear what she is looking for here, but after walking up, she usually hides in the premises of a not so ancient, but very popular among the people, brewery located nearby.
Author: Konstantin Fedorov