She was headed towards Stonehaven and the famous Dunnottar Castle. Set out on a lonely headland, it had featured in just about every Scotland tourist brochure in the lead-up to her trip. As Elle arrived she saw what was becoming a familiar sight at the bigger tourist places—groups of people being herded on and off buses by harried tour guides, barely having any time to wander—and she was again thankful that she had no strict schedule. How much of this beautiful place would she have missed if she only had a few minutes to look around? She had to admit that Gran’s insistence about this trip had been a good thing after all.

Parking well away from the tourist coaches, Elle set off on the long winding walk that would take her to the imposing-looking castle in the distance.

The ruins held an atmosphere she couldn’t quite describe; history seeped through the cracks in the stone—she could almost feel the castle watching her, daring her to stop and ask it to tell her all the stories it held within its walls. And there would have been many.

High inside some of the dank towers, thick green moss covered the walls. There was nothing of the grandeur this place would once have held. Indeed, as Elle read the tourist plaques describing how the rooms would have looked in their heyday, she found it hard to imagine the timber panelling and plaster that had once covered these rough stone walls, now eroded by time, weather and war.

The views from the remaining windows, however, were breathtaking. Elle stood looking down on craggy cliff faces that dropped away into the ocean below, and out over the sweeping coastline and hills surrounding the headland. Further below the castle were caverns where signs warned of ghostly encounters from past occupants, but all Elle could do was smile. Surely ghosts would be a little too daunted by the number of tourists wandering through the halls of the castle to bother making an appearance nowadays, and she wondered about how Gran was coping.

I’m having a wonderful time. I’ve been busy chatting, Gran piped up on cue.

Elle gave a small, resigned sigh.

Don’t you want to know to whom? Gran asked and Elle could picture the twinkle in her eye.

‘Not really,’ Elle said calmly.

You really aren’t much fun, you know, Gran said with a small huff.

‘Gran, I’m still coming to terms with the fact I’m talking to you,’ she said pointedly.

Well, I just met a lovely Earl and a very sweet kitchen maid. Did you know that our Mary also visited here?

Elle laughed. ‘It’s almost as if we’re following in our Mary’s footsteps. That Queen of Scots sure got around.’