Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 tonehaven is a town in Scotland. It lies on Scotland's north-east coast. After the demise of the town of Kincardine, which was gradually abandoned after the destruction of its royal castle in the Wars of Independence, the Scottish Parliament made Stonehaven the successor county town of Kincardineshire. It is currently administered as part of the unitary authority of Aberdeenshire. Stonehaven had grown around an Iron Age fishing village, now the "Auld Toon" ("old town"), and expanded inland from the seaside. As late as the 16th century, old maps indicate the town was called Stonehyve, Stonehive, Timothy Pont also adding the alternative Duniness. It is known informally to locals as Stoney.

History Stonehaven is the site of prehistoric events evidenced by finds at Fetteresso Castle and Neolithic pottery excavations from the Spurryhillock area. In 2004, archaeological work by CFA Archaeology, in advance of the building of the Aberdeen to Lochside Natural Gas Pipeline, found two short cists burials containing cremated remains to the south-west of Stonehaven. Radiocarbon dating put the burials in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, which was the Early Bronze Age in Scotland. The burials contained stone tool artifacts and shale/cannel coal beads. That same year, researchers at the National Museums of Scotland and Yale University announced that a fossil found by an amateur paleontologist the previous year was the earliest known fossil of a land-dwelling animal. The fossil was about 420 million years old.

The town lies at the southern origin of the ancient Causey Mounth trackway, which was built on high ground to make passable this only available medieval route from coastal points south to Aberdeen. This ancient passage specifically connected the Bridge of Dee to Cowie Castle via the Portlethen Moss and the Stonehaven central plaza. The route was taken by the Earl Marischal and Marquess of Montrose when they led a Covenanter army of over 9,000 men in the first battle of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 1639. Originally the settlement of Stonehaven grew and prospered and was known as Kilwhang.

The Covenanters were imprisoned in Dunnottar Castle, where many died. A memorial to them can be found in Dunnottar Church. Other castles in the vicinity are Fetteresso Castle and Muchalls Castle, both of which are in private ownership and not open to the public. The oldest surviving structure in Stonehaven is the Stonehaven Tolbooth at the harbour, used as an early prison and now a museum.

Dunnottar Castle, perched atop a rocky outcrop, was home to the Keith family, and during the Scottish Wars of Independence, the Scottish Crown Jewels were hidden there. In 1296, King Edward I of England took the castle only for William Wallace to reclaim it in 1297, burning down the church in the process with the entire English garrison still in it. In 1650, Oliver Cromwell sacked the castle to find the Crown Jewels following an eight-month siege (having previously destroyed the English Crown Jewels). However, just before the castle fell, the Crown Jewels were smuggled out by some ladies who took them by boat to a small church just down the coast in the village of Kinneff, where they remained undetected for eleven years.

Stonehaven was a Jacobite town in the Fifteen and it was a safe base for the retreating Jacobite army to stay overnight on the night of 5–6 February 1716. In the Forty-Five Stonehaven, part of the Episcopalian north-east, was again ‘reliably Jacobite’ and it was one of the north-eastern ports where reinforcements, plus money and equipment were periodically landed from France. After 1709, when Dunnottar Parish Church was taken over by the Church of Scotland Episcopalian services were held in the tolbooth until a meeting house was built in the High Street in 1738. Following the failure of the Forty-Five, the Duke of Cumberland ordered the building's demolition. Services were then held in a house on the High Street. Stonehaven Town Hall, which is an events venue in the town, was completed in 1878.

Near the Cowie Bridge, at the north of Stonehaven, was a fishing village known as Cowie, which has now been subsumed into Stonehaven. Somewhat further north are the ruins of Cowie Castle. Slightly to the west of Stonehaven is the ruined Ury House, originally a property of the Frasers.

A fossil of the oldest known land animal, Pneumodesmus newmani, a species of millipede, was found at Stonehaven's Cowie Beach in 2004.

Stonehaven is 15 miles (24 km) south of Aberdeen sheltered in Stonehaven Bay. The Carron Water and Cowie Water run through the town. Stonehaven lies adjacent to a deeply indented bay surrounded on three sides by higher land between Downie Point and Garron Point. The harbour, consisting of two basins, was improved in the 1820s by the engineer Robert Stevenson (grandfather of the author Robert Louis Stevenson), and became an important centre of the 19th century herring trade; the harbour is bordered on the north by Bellman's Head and the south by Downie Point. At the western edge of Stonehaven west of the A90 road lies the village of Kirkton of Fetteresso. Nearby to the south, Fowlsheugh is a coastal nature reserve, known for its 230-foot-high cliff formations and habitat supporting prolific seabird nesting colonies.

Stonehaven has grown rapidly since the oil boom in Aberdeen. The increasing demand for new, middle-class housing has seen four new estates being appended to the town, creating an expanse of suburbs and Stonehaven has been bypassed since 1984.

Because of its location at the confluence between two rivers, Stonehaven is prone to flooding following heavy rain. Aberdeenshire Council has held meetings about the possible construction of flood defences. These are currently under construction.

The Highland Boundary Fault traverses Scotland from the Isle of Arran and Helensburgh on the west coast to immediately north of Stonehaven on the east coast.

Commerce and culture Historically the chief commerce of Stonehaven lay in fishing. Led by the herring fishery, the catch peaked around the year 1894 with a peak catch of about 15 million fish per annum and employment in the fishing industry of 1280 people. Due to overfishing to serve the expanding regional population, the fishing industry declined with diminishing catches, such that by 1939 only a remnant of the earlier fishing fleet continued to exist, and the catch mostly supported the local population from that point onward. Glenury distillery was situated near Mineralwell park, and closed in 1985.

Currently, the town's primary industries are marine services and tourism, with Dunnottar Castle, a local landmark, bringing in a large number of tourists every year. Dunnottar Castle is regularly used in promotional material by the Scottish tourism industry; in addition, it was used in the 1990 film Hamlet, and appeared as a featured desktop background in the UK edition of Microsoft Windows 7. Situated nearby is the war memorial, constructed after World War I. It is visible from much of the town thanks to its prominent position on a hilltop overlooking the bay. Another attractive feature of the town is the long beach facing the North Sea, with large cliffs at either end sheltering small rock pools and inlets. It is also famous for its Olympic-size outdoor swimming pool, which is heated and filled with filtered seawater. The local harbour features the Tolbooth, the town's small museum of local heritage.

During Hogmanay festivities, crowds watch the annual fireballs ceremony in which volunteers walk down the High Street swinging their fireball - a homemade ball of burning waste materials with a chain and handle attached. The Fireball Festival was part of the content of STV's Hogmanay coverage. The fireballs are finally thrown into the harbour. It is uncertain when the fireballs began, however, reports covering the event from as early as 1911 exist. The event has taken place annually, though has been cancelled during the world wars and in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stonehaven's long-established pipe band plays at events throughout the year, including the folks festival and fireball ceremony. The band has competed at various levels throughout its illustrious history including several years at the prestigious Grade 1.

Cuisine The town's Haven Fish Bar was the likely origin of the deep-fried Mars Bar, a snack now culturally associated with Scotland - and its health record - as a whole. In 2012, the (since renamed) Carron fish and chip shop sold around 100–150 deep-fried Mars bars per week, with tourists accounting for around 70% of this figure. The Carron was awarded No 1 Fish and Chip Shop in Scotland 2020. Another local fish and chip shop, the Bay, was awarded the number one fish and chip shop in Scotland, at the National fish and Chip awards in 2012 and 2013.[

Transport The town has been served by Stonehaven railway station on the Dundee–Aberdeen line since 1849. Initially located outside the town, Stonehaven has since grown and has absorbed the station. The A90 road bypasses the town, and meets the A92 here. The town has a local service and is also on the X7 Coastrider route between Aberdeen and Perth. A locally run Land Train runs from the town square to the outdoor pool, Dunnottar Castle and the harbour.