Travel - Beauty, history and intrigue with supernatural connections
Photo by Astrid Horn CC BY-SA 2.0 Cairnbulg Castle
Beauty, history and intrigue with supernatural connections
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omantic castles, picturesque villages, spectacular sea cliffs, enchanting coves and smugglers’ caves coupled with shipwrecked ghosts, historic battles and even a vampire or two can all be found between Fraserburgh and Newburgh. This short drive is just over 33 miles long but takes curious travellers on a journey through time spanning thousands of years of human history.
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Just outside of Fraserburgh the villages of Cairnbulg and Inverallochy are the first points of interest.There have been fishing communities on this stretch of coastline since at least the 1500s. Nearby Cainbulg castle can trace its origins back to the 13th century when it was one of the Nine Castles of the Knuckle and a stronghold of the Comyn family, rivals to Robert The Bruce for the Scottish crown.
Bruce seized the castle during his Harrying of Buchan in 1308 when he laid waste to Comyn lands throughout the region. He later gifted the estate to the Earls of Ross in 1316 who in turn passed it to the Fraser family in 1375 who held on to it for almost 300 years. Extensively rebuilt during the 19th century by the Duthie family the castle returned to the Frasers in the 1930s and remains the home of Katherine Fraser, Mistress of Saltoun.
