Qualla: Dunnottar Castle https://qualla.com/dunnottar-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/n/7/dunnottar-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Dunnottar Castle https://qualla.com/dunnottar-castle Dunnottar Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/dunnottar-castle/ Photo credit Bewahrerderwerte, CC BY-SA 4.0. On a winter night in 1652, with English soldiers camped on every landward approach, two women carried out one of the most audacious acts of defiance in Scottish history. Elizabeth Douglas, wife of the castle's governor, and Christian Fletcher, wife of the local minister, smuggled the Honours of Scotland -- the crown, sword, and sceptre of the Scottish kings -- out of Dunnottar Castle and buried them beneath the floor of Kinneff Parish Church, where they would remain hidden for eight years. Cromwell's troops eventually starved the garrison into surrender but never found what they had come for. The Scottish crown jewels survived because of a fortress so formidable that it bought two women the time they needed.

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Image: Bewahrerderwerte | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/n/7/dunnottar-castle-wp/gfn7-dunnottar-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Dunnottar Castle: A Fortress Built by the Sea https://qualla.com/dunnottar-castle/ Photo credit Bewahrerderwerte, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dunnottar Castle occupies a rocky headland on the northeast coast of Scotland, two miles south of Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire. The site is surrounded on three sides by cliffs that plunge 160 feet to the North Sea, and a narrow strip of land provides the only approach from the mai...

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Image: Bewahrerderwerte | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/n/7/dunnottar-castle-wp/gfn7-dunnottar-castle-a-fortress-built-by-the-sea.mp3 0:06 2 full Dunnottar Castle: The Keiths and Their Kingdom https://qualla.com/dunnottar-castle/ Photo credit me, Public domain. The castle passed to the Keith family around 1359, when William Keith, Marischal of Scotland, married Margaret Fraser, a niece of Robert the Bruce. The Keiths held Dunnottar for more than three centuries, transforming it from a stark medieval tower into something approaching a pa...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/n/7/dunnottar-castle-wp/gfn7-dunnottar-castle-the-keiths-and-their-kingdom.mp3 0:06 3 full Dunnottar Castle: Jewels, Prisoners, and Exile https://qualla.com/dunnottar-castle/ Photo credit Bewahrerderwerte, CC BY-SA 4.0. The castle's greatest hour came during Cromwell's invasion. After Charles II was crowned at Scone in January 1651, the Honours of Scotland could not be safely returned to Edinburgh with English forces occupying the Lowlands. The regalia was smuggled to Dunnottar hidden in sacks o...

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Image: Bewahrerderwerte | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/n/7/dunnottar-castle-wp/gfn7-dunnottar-castle-jewels-prisoners-and-exile.mp3 0:06 4 full Dunnottar Castle: Ruin and Resurrection https://qualla.com/dunnottar-castle/ Photo credit Andrewmckie, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Jacobite Rising of 1715 sealed Dunnottar's fate. George Keith, the 10th Earl Marischal, led cavalry at the Battle of Sheriffmuir and, when the rebellion collapsed, fled to the Continent, eventually becoming Frederick the Great's ambassador to France. His titles and estates, i...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/n/7/dunnottar-castle-wp/gfn7-dunnottar-castle-ruin-and-resurrection.mp3 0:06 5 full