A cliff path walk from Stonehaven harbour to Dunnottar Castle

A walk · Stonehaven

Stonehaven to Dunnottar – The Cliff Path to the Castle

3 miles1½ hoursthere and back

paid parkingdogs on a leadtoilets

Dunnottar Castle's own advice is to come on foot from Stonehaven along the cliffs, with the ruin on its rock coming into sight ahead.

Where it starts

Stonehaven harbour: the council's free Backies car park by the Old Pier.

Directions to the start

Is it for me?

Tap who is coming, or the day you have, for the answer on this walk.

Before you go

Getting there

The Market Square car park in the town is pay and display, Monday to Saturday, 8am to 5pm.

On the path

About an hour and a half for the path there and back, 1.6 miles each way; about three hours if you go into the castle. Steep steps with a handrail up from the harbour, then a clifftop path close to steep drops in places. About 180 steps down from the clifftop to the castle, and more up into it. Steep drops beside the path beyond the memorial: keep children close. Under-16s must be with an adult in the castle.

Good to know

All year, in daylight. From 25 October to 31 January, leave the harbour by 12.30pm to be at the castle before last entry at 2pm. Dogs on a lead near the cliffs, above all from April to August when seabirds nest. In the castle, on a short lead at all times. Public toilets on the Old Pier at the harbour. At the castle, inside only. Last entry to the castle is an hour before closing. It shuts at short notice in high wind, snow or ice: look at its website before you set out.

The walk

This walk goes from Stonehaven harbour along the clifftops to Dunnottar Castle and back the same way. It is about 1.6 miles (2.6 km) and 40 minutes each way by our measure. It is steep at the start, up steps with a handrail and a lane to the war memorial on the hill, then a clifftop path, so wear sturdy shoes. The walk's own page, on the castle's website, sets out the way from the harbour.

On the Old Pier stands the Tolbooth, the oldest building in Stonehaven, thought to have been put up as a storehouse while Dunnottar was being built. It was the town's prison until 1767 and is now a free museum: look for the Crank, a weighted handle prisoners were made to turn.

The war memorial stands on the Black Hill, given to the town by the castle's owners. John Ellis, a Stonehaven architect, designed it as an open temple left unfinished on purpose, for lives cut short; it dates from 1923.

The path then runs along the clifftops above Strathlethan Bay and the sea stack of Dunnicaer, where archaeologists have dated the oldest Pictish fort yet found. In places it passes close to steep drops to the sea, so keep to the path.

Dunnottar's rock is pudding stone, pebbles held in a natural cement so hard that cracks run through the pebbles, not round them. In 1651 and 1652 the Honours of Scotland, the crown jewels, were kept safe here from Cromwell's army.

The castle opens daily, 9am to 6pm from April to September and from 10am from October to March, closing at 5pm until 24 October, 3pm from 25 October to the end of January, 4pm in February and 5pm in March. Last entry is an hour before closing. It is shut on 25 and 26 December and 1 and 2 January, and on 16 December 2026. Until the end of March 2027 tickets are £13.50 for adults and £6.25 for children aged 5 to 15, by card only.

The Tolbooth museum opens at weekends this winter, 12.30pm to 3.30pm; check its hours from April. The harbour front has pubs and a café for lunch.

If it rains

The clifftop has no shelter, and the castle's own steps can be slippery when wet. In heavy rain or a strong wind, go only as far as the war memorial, or stay down at the harbour.

After the walk

Coffee and cake, something to do with the rest of the day, and dinner, nearest the end of the walk first.

Straight after

The ice-cream counter at Aunty Betty's under its painted ceiling.

3 min by roadA caféAunty BettysA family-run ice cream, dessert and sweetie shop on Stonehaven's beachfront, known for its quirky style, loaded toppings and ice cream made with local produce.

Brae's bright café room, a counter of bakes and tables by big windows.

10 min by roadA caféBrae at ChapeltonA brother-and-sister café in the new town of Chapelton near Stonehaven, with brunch, lunch, house-made bakes and speciality coffee from Aberdeen's Figment.

With the rest of the day

Small boats moored in Stonehaven harbour beneath rows of white waterfront houses

2 min by roadThings to doStonehavenA harbour town fifteen miles south of Aberdeen, its old quarter clustered round a sheltered harbour with the 16th-century Tolbooth, a crescent of beach and Dunnottar Castle a mile away.

Swimmers and sunbathers round Stonehaven's open-air pool on a sunny day.

3 min by roadThings to doStonehaven Outdoor PoolThe UK's only Art Deco Olympic-sized seawater lido, opened in 1934 on Stonehaven's seafront, heated, with moonlight swims to disco music, open for the summer season.

Waterfall dropping from grassy cliffs into a sheltered sea inlet

9 min by roadThings to doRSPB FowlsheughOwned and managed by the RSPB since 1976, Fowlsheugh is a spectacular site to view seabirds in the summer months

Grass-topped limestone cliff with a thin waterfall dropping into the sea

10 min by roadThings to doCrawton WaterfallA burn that pours straight over the sea cliffs at Crawton, south of Stonehaven, beside a fishing village left empty in the early 1900s and the seabird cliffs of Fowlsheugh.

Rowing boat "The Gray Starling" sits among wildflowers overlooking a rocky sea stack

12 min by roadThings to doCatterline BayA little fishing village on the cliffs south of Stonehaven, above a curving shingle bay and a pier of 1810, where the painter Joan Eardley lived and painted the sea from 1955.

Portlethen's clubhouse, golfers on the putting green in front.

14 min by roadThings to doPortlethen Golf CourseA parkland course at Portlethen, south of Aberdeen, crossed by the tree-lined Findon Burn.

For dinner

The Ship Inn in Stonehaven, a minute by road. An inn of 1771 on the edge of Stonehaven harbour, with malts, real ale and a sun terrace.

The Marine Hotel in Stonehaven, a minute by road. A harbourside bar serving the beer of its own brewery, six°north, and some of the best from Belgium.

Tolbooth Seafood Restaurant in Stonehaven, a minute by road. A seafood restaurant upstairs in Stonehaven's Tolbooth, the town's oldest building, on the old pier, with fish landed in the harbour below.