Dunnottar Castle

Dunnottar occupies a flat-topped rock about fifty metres above the North Sea, joined to the land by a narrow ridge, and the approach is down a steep path, across the neck and up a flight of steps through a gatehouse cut into the rock, which was the whole point of the site. Buildings on the summit include a fourteenth-century tower house, a chapel, stables and a seventeenth-century quadrangle. During the 1650s the Honours of Scotland, the crown, sceptre and sword, were held here through a long siege and then smuggled out and hidden, which is the castle's best-known episode. Franco Zeffirelli filmed Hamlet here in 1990. The cliffs hold nesting seabirds in summer, and the coastal path from Stonehaven gives the standard view of the rock from the north.

What you actually see

• The sea stack site - a summit joined to land by a single narrow neck.
• The rock-cut gatehouse - the defended stair and entrance through the cliff.
• The regalia story - where the Honours of Scotland were held and hidden.
• The seabird cliffs - nesting colonies below the walls in summer.

When to go

April to October for full opening; the site closes in high wind, which is common on this coast, and in ice. Early morning gives the rock lit from the east with fewer people. The walk from Stonehaven adds an hour each way.

Honest expectations

The approach involves a steep descent and around a hundred and fifty steps back up, and there is no alternative. Weather closures happen at short notice with no advance warning. The ruins are roofless and the summit is fully exposed to wind.

Nearby

Stonehaven and its harbour are three kilometres north; Aberdeen is half an hour further.