Scotland, Here We Come! (Part 9)

Day 8 (Part 2)

We left Glamis Castle and headed up the coast towards our next destination:  Dunnottar Castle.  The guide book says that "St. Ninian, William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots and the Marquis of Montrose have all appeared on this dramatic stage.  Most famously, though, it was at Dunnottar Castle that a small garrison held out against the might of Cromwell's army for eight months and saved the Scottish Crown Jewels, the 'Honours of Scotland', from destruction." 

The significance for us was that years before when Roger was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Scotland, he and the other missionaries stopped and took a picture of a castle out on a bluff that has always been one of our favorites.  One of our goals while in Scotland was to find that castle again.  We found it -- Dunnottar Castle.

Below is the building that you see as you arrive at the entrance to Dunnottar Castle.  I assume that there may be a visitor's center inside (or maybe someone lives there), but it was closed when we arrived.  The sign in the window says there will be an entrance fee at the castle.

We walked along a path for quite a ways, and then looked over the hill to see this view - Dunnottar!

We had to hike down the trail and a very long series of stairs to get to the bottom of the bluff and then up another very long series of stairs to get to the castle.  (I should have counted all the steps we've climbed while in Scotland.) It would have been very hard for someone to lay seige to this castle!

Below is the picture that Roger took back in 1966-1968 as the missionaries started their hike to Dunnottar....

When we reached the bottom of the bluff, we looked over and there was a little girl looking at us out of a hole in the bluff.  We were doing enough up and down stair-climbing that we didn't try to climb down into the lower reaches of the castle area to find where she had been.

Then we started our climb up (and up and up) into Dunnottar.   The castle is literally built into and on top of the bluff.

And then we came out on top of the bluff...........

The various buildings on top were living quarters, barracks, stables, chapel, dining area, armory, prison, storage, etc.  Some living areas, ammunitions areas, and prisons were built down several levels into the bluff itself.  The ruins were pretty impressive and covered most of the bluff.

This might have been a later addition....W.C. is short for "water closet".

Some of the areas seemed a little on the dark and gloomy side.

It seemed like every window was a different shape.............

And the views were beautiful.........you can see why an enemy would have a difficult time conquering this castle.

I loved the ocean views -- it is just so different from the deseret climate we live in.

Below are two  pictures out one of the castle windows taken by Roger on his mission (1966-1968).........

I thought Roger looked quite at home............

This is what it looks like when you have hiked down the stairs and left Dunnottar and you are climbing up the other side.............

No matter where you are looking, it is a beautiful view.

The pictures below are taken from the other bluff, looking over at Dunnottar.

One of our goals on this trip was to find "Dunnottar" although Roger couldn't recall the name of the castle.  We found a spot that seemed to be the same view as that in Roger's picture taken years ago and we took a lot of pictures. Our pictures turned out much different, however, because the lighting was so different. The pictures we took almost have an "other world" look to them. The greens and blues are so muted and almost "surreal-looking".  This is the one we took in September..........

And this is the one that Roger took when he was on his mission in Scotland (1966-1968)......the colors are a lot different!