The lost Burgh of Rattray

'A mysterious spot.The shattered remains of St Mary's Chapel, amidst fields and barren bents overlooking the treeless Loch of Strathbeg, echoing to the foghorn of Rattray Head lighthouse, is all that remains of the Burgh of Rattray'.(Charles McKean 'Banff and Buchan an Illustrated Architectural Guide')

The chapel has been in existence since 1220 when it was founded by William Comyn. Rattray was a thriving community on the S.E shore of the Loch of Strathbeg until 1720 when a great storm threw a sandbar across the entrance to the loch, stranding a ship laden with slates and precipitating the decline and eventual abandoning  of the burgh.



The eerie remains of the coastguard station,  on the hill beyond the farm of Old Rattray 



The coastguard lookout tower

Ruined cottages in  the isolated Seatown of Rattray, just south of the lighthouse station, nicknamed Botany Bay after the penal colony. The sea town, consisted of about 10 houses and  was built around 1792 as an attempt to reintroduce fishing to the parish of Crimond by the proprietor of Rattray House.Very few settlers moved to the new community until around 1803 when a group of fishermen, ousted from Boatlea, moved in. The coast at this point is notoriously treacherous, many boats must have been lost during winter storms and the settlement, for a time known as the Smugglers' Village,  failed to develop and was abandoned before World War 2.

Rattray Head Shore Station with the offshore lighthouse visible behind the keepers' accommodation block. The lighthouse is now fully automated and the shore station is an hotel.



The lighthouse, built on Rhone Rock to warn shipping of the danger of  Rattray Briggs, came in to operation on 14th October 1895.



The day we visited there was a stiff breeze blowing the sand along the beach and turning pebbles into miniature sand sculptures. At low tide several wrecks can be seen from the shore.