Day 28 Ohhh Dracular and History

Sunday 15/04/2018 Peterhead The Lost Guest House Room 7

Wooooooo how cold is this room....l we did get warm enough with the extra blanket thank goodness we had one... and Praise God there is amazing beautiful sun shinning through our window this morning warming our room like magic.... what a difference it makes with the sun out makes just to us and how we cope with this weather....

Another bonus was the breaky here.... The whole lot was on offer, continental, plus cooked and was it good.....
Might be an ordinary place but it has bonus’s.....

So with breaky under our belts and a bit of a slow start, we finally head out the door st about 10.45am.... late for us, but we only have a few miles to go today.... encore we left I googled what we could do between Peterhead and Cruden Bay and it would seem there are Castle ruins not in any information sheet, or even on the tourist maps, but is on the main road map book we bought....

We are heading to Cruden Bay as it is where John’s dad believes relatives come from. A James Cruickshank originally owned the Kilmarnock Arms Inn in Cruden Bay, it was a Temprance Hotel back in the day when you could apply for an alcohol license, he was the first to do that and it has been going strong e er since... We had planned to stay there but it was right out of our budget sadly....

So as we drove into town there she was a large complex for its time, very neat and tidy looking.... Took some shots through the window, but kept driving to check out the sights.... as we drove on further we could see a huge church on a rise out of Town.... so off we set to Investigate all about it.... love old building a lady leaving church told us it was open if we wanted to go in, we thanked her I took some pics and we drove back to town to the Harbour area.... lovely beach across an inlet a truly beautiful beach with lovely cream SAND not rocks and heaps of people out in it enjoying the sun.... Where we pulled up in the Harbour car park Campervans could stay there for 48hrs for free, that was pretty amazing for a place like this.... Cruden Bay itself has fishing history going back centuries, plus it has been a big Golfing town since the 1800’s where people from all over came to play tournaments, still today they are playing them here..... The town itself is nothing special, a lot of homes around the golf course, and plenty of very ordinary looking homes.... you can certainly tell the older homes that have been here for centuries......

Once we had a look there we saw a car park that said New Slains Castle this way.... so we parked up and set off on foot not knowing how far it was.... a lady with 2 chocolate labbies came along and told us it was a good 15-20 min walk.... So through a fairy forest we set off.... it had those twisted trees, a carpet of bright green vine with yellow flowers covering the ground, a little stream that was meandering next to the path most of the way to the castle.... it did open up to ploughed fliers ready to plant, plus these bunker looking brick shelters dotting the landscape that you only saw as we got higher on the path.... next to the path from here was unreal cliffs, starting where the stream went out to sea... through a craggy valley.... then from there huge drops into the ocean below with 1,000 of seagulls on the craggy rough rocks along the coastal walls hugging the cliffs.... unreal sights... then in the distance we could see this huge group it looked of buildings, the closer you got it become clear it was a massive castle ruin....

Once there it just blew us away how big it was, filled with knocks and crannies here there and everywhere, archway, after archway you got over loaded with so many, to go through and look to the next section.... Sadly no roof and that was its demise...

The government in the late 1800’s taxed you in the size of your roof, at one stage it was I. How many windows you had hence why so many older places have bordered up windows with bricks... in this case the roof was removed.... hence now a wreck.... at one stage in the mid 2000’s there were family members who were going to restore her into a 35 bed hotel over looking the ocean, but with the downturn the the UK economic sector it was all shelved....

What I found on the net...... Slains Castle, also known as New Slains Castle to distinguish it from nearby Old Slains Castle, is a ruined castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It overlooks the North Sea from its cliff-top site 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) east of Cruden Bay. The core of the castle is a 16th-century tower house, built by the 9th Earl of Erroll. Significant reconstruction of the castle has been carried out a number of times, lastly in 1837 when it was rebuilt as a Scots Baronial mansion. At one time it had three extensive gardens, but is now a roofless ruin. Plans to restore the castle have been on hold since 2009. It is a Historic Environment Scotland Category B listed building. In 1913 the 20th Earl of Erroll sold New Slains,[1] ending more than 300 years of occupation by the family. It was purchased by Sir John Ellerman, the wealthy but secretive owner of the Ellerman Lines shipping company, who leased it out. In 1925 the roof was removed to avoid taxes,[4] and the building has deteriorated since. It is now a roofless shell, with most of the outer and inner walls standing to full height. In 2004 it was reported that the Slains Partnership was preparing plans for restoration of the building and conversion into 35 holiday apartments.[4] In August 2007 the scheme was granted outline planning permission by Aberdeenshire Council, but the plans were put on hold in 2009 due to the economic downturn.

Its other history is it started way back .......in the Late 1800’s Bram Stocker stayed here at the Kilmarnock Arms, visited the Castle a number of times and found his inspiration for his story about Dracula’s.......

Enough about the place other than wow it was unreal to see and so, so interesting that it’s not advertised anywhere other than when you goggle or in the village!

So back to the Kilmarnock Arms for Lunch a Salmon and cream cheese sandwich shared.... very tasty fresh salmon straight from the Scottish waters.....

While at lunch I wandered around and found old pictures plus a letter with a James Cruickshank signature in it... John was busy on the net researching about the connection and he is starting to think that maybe just maybe we aren’t part of this Cruickshank family?..... on looking he found heaps of John CRUICKSHANK’s born around the time of his Grandfather also John Cruickshank, who came from Scotland to Australia... Johns Dad was his only Son and his dad was 50 when he was born.....

So I suggested to John let’s go to the cemetery, the one at St James and see if any CRUICKSHANK’s are buried there.... and yep after a look around we found James CRUICKSHANK who we think was the a Kilmarnock Arms hotel owner was buried along with his wife in this very cemetery.....
Are they related most probably, but the dates and names don’t seem to go with when John’s grandfather was Born.... so more investigation is required.
While here I had a look inside the church and it had the whole history of it starting back in 1104 very early history, it has been replaced a number of times of the years to the present day building, but what was fascinating was that in 2012 it celebrated its 1,000 year just mind blowing, we are amazed at 100-200 yrs at hime but 1,000 yrs is just amazing.....

so with all this info and the fact we couldn’t find anymore info we headed for home, stopping to see some sights we spotted on the way this AM..... one sight I so wanted to stop at but just knew it would work now was the Hairy Cooows I saw this morning with the sun on them they looked great this morning but this arvo they are in the shadows and I can’t get close enough for a good pic.... so sadly defeated here.... Checked our this huge tower thing very hard to find a driveway to it.... it was built in early 1930’s for what reason we dint know but not many go to it now and it really is a wonderful structure to view... then down to a light house we spotted, and another wonderful old harbour....

Had a quick look at these then back to our hotel... I found a heater down stairs so used it to keep us warm... they did put in the oil heaters for an hour as a token I am guessing then no more.... so, so glad I got the heater.... Dinner at the Waverley Inn a pub up the street, good meal, far too much to eat 2 meals for £10 not a bad deal...lol mind you one meal would have done...

Our day has come to an end...the weather temp has dropped a strong wind has come up and thick, thick fog.... it changes so quickly....Read more