* Astronomy

Dunnottar Castle is located on a 50 metres high rocky gabbro promontory jutting out of the east coast of Scotland, into the North Sea.
The site, is connected by a small isthmus to the mainland. Given the defensive quality of the site, it has been home to fortifications of one sort or another for most of the past two thousand years and probably much longer. The name "dun" is Pictish for fort.


Latitude 56.94537 N Longitude -2.19560 W

The Annals of Ulster record a siege of Duin Foither in 681, at what was likely to have been Dunnottar. Dunnottar is also a possible location for a battle between King Donald II and the Vikings in 900, and it is thought that a raid into Scotland by land and sea by King Aethelstan of Wessex in 934 targeted the fortifications.
Dunnottar was besieged by Montrose in 1645, and again in 1651 by Cromwell.
Some of the ruins have been restored in the past century by the private owners, who use the site for picnics.
The site is open to the public, and is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists annually.
The Castle lies just off a minor road, itself just off the main A92, less than two miles south of Stonehaven. A small car park gives access to a path that descends the landward cliffs before climbing up to the castle itself.

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