Dunnottar Castle [5 photos] in NO8783 :: Geograph Britain and Ireland

Shared description

Dunnottar Castle

Dunnottar Castle, with its dramatic clifftop location on the Kincardineshire coast south of Stonehaven, is one of Scotland's most romantic ruins. As early as the ninth century King Donald II was killed defending the castle from Viking invaders. In the 12th century Dunnottar became a Catholic settlement and later became involved in wars with England; it is said that William Wallace once set fire to the chapel with a garrison of English soldiers inside. From the 14th century the castle became home to the Earls Marischal who built the keep. The castle's most famous incident occurred during the 17th century when a garrison held out for eight months protecting the Scottish crown jewels from Cromwell's army; in the end the garrison surrendered but not before the jewels had been smuggled out. Later in the 17th century, 167 men and women were imprisoned here in the 'whig's vault' for refusing to acknowledge the King's supremacy in spiritual matters.

by Stephen McKay

Created: Fri, 12 Nov 2010, Updated: Mon, 15 Nov 2010

5 images use this description:

NO8783 : Path to Dunnottar Castle by Stephen McKay

NO8883 : Dunnottar Castle by Stephen McKay

NO8883 : Dunnottar Castle by Ralph Greig

Shared descriptions

This shared description

Shared descriptions are specifically licensed so that contributors can reuse them on their own images, without restriction.

About shared descriptions

These Shared Descriptions are common to multiple images.

For example, you can create a generic description for an object shown in a photo, and reuse the description on all photos of the object. All descriptions are public and shared between contributors, i.e. you can reuse a description created by others, just as they can use yours.