Autumn Clan Hay Castle Coast Aberdeenshire Scotland

Tour Scotland Autumn travel video, with Scottish music, of the Clan Hay castle on the East coast of Aberdeenshire. The Clan Hay were a powerful family in this area for generations, having possessed the lands of Slains since the 14th century. In 1453 Sir William Hay, the clan chief, was made Earl of Erroll by King James II. In 1820 William Hay, 18th Earl of Erroll, married Lady Elizabeth FitzClarence, the illegitimate daughter of King William IV and Dorothea Jordan. In the 1830s the 18th Earl commissioned the Aberdeen architect John Smith to remodel the castle.The castle is associated with the author Bram Stoker, who was a regular visitor to nearby Cruden Bay between 1893 and 1910. The castle is mentioned in his locally set novels, The Watter's Mou' and The Mystery of the Sea. It also provided the inspiration for Kyllion Castle in The Jewel of Seven Stars. Slains Castle is commonly linked with Dracula. It is likely that the castle provided a visual palette for Bram Stoker when he started writing the book in Cruden Bay. A distinctive room in Slains Castle, the octagonal hall, may be the source for the octagonal room in Dracula. The surname Hay was first found in Perthshire, Gaelic: Siorrachd Pheairt.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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