DISCOVERY
SIMON BALDWIN takes a tour of some lesser known Scottish gems which he says are worthy of further exploration
It is more than 20 years since US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, delivered what became his most famous speech: “We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.” Mention Scotland’s coast and many will know…bits! The Firths of Forth and Clyde. Skye. The Tay Bridge. Sea Lochs. West Sands beach in St Andrews used in the opening sequence of the movie Chariots of Fire. But Scotland’s coast extends to more than 7,000 miles. When you think the land border with England is less than 100 miles, there are a lot of, well, unknowns!
I suspect there are some square feet of Scotland’s highlands that have not been stepped on in, well, perhaps ever, so vast is the countryside. But the coastline is different. The country’s growth through the centuries relied on seafarers. Here, I take a journey to discover what many in Scotland might describe as ‘weel kent’…well known to those who live here, known unknowns to those who do not.
THE MUSEUM OF SCOTTISH LIGHTHOUSES IN FRASERBURGH
It is the early 16th century. The small settlement of Faithlie has just been bought by the Fraser family, who set about building Kinnaird Head Castle and a harbour and changing the place name to Fraserburgh, their very own burgh.
The 19th century was boomtime: 220 vessels plied the herring trade from an extended harbour costing more than £2m in today’s money. The sea was everything and in 1858 Fraserburgh became the first official RNLI lifeboat station in Scotland. Those times may be gone – as has much of the fishing trade – but the lighthouse remains as testament to more than a century of extraordinary fortune.
In 1787, Kinnaird Head Castle was converted to become the first mainland lighthouse in Scotland but it was not up to the job. In the early 19th century, Robert Stevenson was tasked with fixing the problem. He engineered a foundation, walls and a spiral staircase right through the heart of the castle. In 1902, Robert’s grandson, David Alan Stevenson, installed a hyper-radial lens, flashing a bright white light every 15 seconds, making it visible to grateful seamen up to 25 nautical miles off shore. It remains in perfect working order.
It is an extraordinary property and well worth a visit. Complete with an adjacent Wine Tower, today’s lighthouse is one of the best-preserved buildings on what is known locally as the “nine castles of the knuckle” – ancient fortifications dotted along Aberdeenshire’s Buchan coast which punches out into th
