Castles and seaside!

On Monday we took a drive up to the northeast coast of Scotland. We had a couple of castles marked off that we wanted to see as well as some attractions along the coast itself.

It was a really windy day though... glad we weren't driving a motorhome!

We headed directly up towards the town of Banff, and stopped in at Inchdrewer Castle. 

Ruth and Loki walking towards Inchdrewer Castle.

Inchdrewer Castle is just a small castle. More of a towerhouse actually. But it has an interesting story and I wanted to visit it in person to see if any repairs had been done to it.

Inchdrewer Castle was built around 1550.

The castle was lived in until early 1900's.

However records indicate it was abandoned around 1910, and has been empty ever since. It was purchased in 1962 by Count Robin Mirrlees and structural restoration work to make it wind and watertight was undertaken between 1965 and 1971.

A plaque commemorating the restoration work completed in 1971.

The count died in 2012, and his estate put the castle and grounds up for sale and it was purchased for £400,000 by former model Olga Roh, who apparently is still the owner. I can find a lot of articles from 2014 stating that she was going to fully restore the castle and make it into a boutique hotel, but nothing since. So I wanted to see if anything was ever done to it, but obviously nothing has happened. 

Next stop was the town of Banff. We wandered around and had lunch in a local park.

The waterfront at Banff.

The wind was causing a lot of whitecaps.

Scenery along the way.

We took the "coastal trail", a sometimes narrow road with some nice views.

New Aberdour Beach.

Sea caves at New Aberdour Beach.

Kevin and Loki.

New Aberdour Beach.

The Mounthooly Doocot.

A doocot is typically a place to house pigeons. This one was built around 1800 by a wealthy landowner who obviously had nothing better to do with his cash!

From there, we drove over to the Bullers of Buchan, site of a collapsed sea cave...

Lots of birds on the cliffs.

And from there, to New Slains Castle... another seaside ruins, however this one (unlike Dunnottar Castle a few days ago) is totally free to access and wander around. I still can't figure why anyone would pay £13 to see Dunnottar Castle when ones like this are totally free. 

New Slains Castle.

Originally built around 1600, and rebuilt around 1836. 

This lithograph shows the castle around 1850.

By 1925, the castle was in a state of disrepair and was sold to a demolition company who salvaged and sold anything of value. 

New Slains Castle.

We had a fun day, despite the fact that it was a little chilly with the wind. We ended up driving 150 miles (240 kms) in total!

Today, we are headed inland up to the highlands... maybe we'll see some Scottish highland cattle!

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