Slains Castle is a large imposing ruin fronting directly onto south facing cliffs about a kilometer east of Cruden Bay. You can walk to it from the village itself.
There are, confusingly, two Slains Castles on this stretch of coast. The original lay a mile north east of Collieston and about six miles south west of its successor. This was built in the 1200s as a fortress. But in 1594 the owner, the Earl of Erroll backed a plot by the Earl of Huntly against King James VI. James responded by blowing up Old Slains Castle, and not much remains today.
The Earl of Erroll returned from exile in 1597 and made his peace with James. Rather than try to rebuild Slains, he instead used a tower house at Bowness as the basis for a new Slains Castle. The tower was extended and ranges of buildings were added around a courtyard.
In 1664 the castle was again expanded and altered, and a corridor was built across the courtyard. The final major change came in 1836 when further wings were added and the underlying castle was given a granite facing and generally Disneyfied.
Building costs and high living did little for the family finances and in 1916 death duties forced the 20th Earl of Erroll to sell Slains Castle. The new owner allowed the castle to fall into disrepair, and in 1925 its roof was removed.
Slains Castle today is a slightly unsettling place. It comes as little surprise to discover that Bram Stoker, who stayed at the castle, used it as inspiration for his story of Dracula. Earlier distinguished visitors included Samuel Johnson and James Boswell on their tour of the Highlands and Islands. You can read Johnson's description here, and Boswell's here.
Slain's general air of creepiness is not helped by the vaulted room accessed down a muddy slide that was probably once a kitchen store complete with large stone storage bins all the way around the walls. Unless (as you begin to wonder as you peer round in the near total darkness) it was some sort of crypt.
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Slains Castle