A bleak windswept track, a few miles inland from Stonehaven winds across open arable fields, on the lower slopes of a hill that leads to a clump of trees on the top. The size of the potholes would deter a determined intruder. Those without a 4x4 would have to walk. Hidden by the trees on the top of the hill I reckon Muchall Castle would make the perfect hide away. A romantic house with a courtyard, and views out, through the trees to the sea. There is supposed to be a tunnel that leads to a cave, Gin Shore, that was used for smuggling, who knows?
This place has been held by people called Fraser, they sold it to the Hays in 1415, and then it passed to the Burnett's, who built the castle c1619. James VIII, the Old Pretender stayed here during the course of the disastrous Jacobite Rising in 1716.
Sorry I'm not sure the second part of this is correct. The first part is correct, but the second part I do not think is. King James VIII actually stayed at Fetteresso Castle, where he was proclaimed King James VIII on the castle doorstep. My friends the Simpsons sold Fetteresso and bought Muchalls in the early 1950s and carried out extensive research on the history of Muchalls and at no time when we were discussing its history did they ever mention King James staying there. They actually brought the bed King James slept in at Fetteresso to Muchalls with them so the bed was there, but I seriously doubt James ever stayed there.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes there was a tunnel which was blasted when the railway was built in the mid 1800s. At the beach where it exited there is a tidal cave which is narrow at the front but which opens out into a huge cavern, where the smugglers purportedly stored their goods and then carried up the tunnel to the house
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