Cowie castle was build by King Malcolm Canmore, with Sir Simon Fraser as Guardian. The castle was often occupied by the king and other Royal guests. Along with Dunnottar Castle (defending the route across the Slug and Kincardine Castle (at the entrance of Cairn 'o Mount Pass), Cowie Castle (which stood to the north of the present village and of which little can be seen today) defended the southern end of what came to be known as the Causeway across the eastern slope of the Mounth.
The original village was destroyed by fire in 1645, at that time there was strong support for Bonnie Prince Charlie within the fishing community. The Marquis of Montrose, being unable to gain access to Dunnottar castle (being defended by the Jacobites), ordered the surrounding area to be laid waste in revenge. The rebuilt village was moved closer to the shoreline where it stands today.
The dawn of life on land. : Pneumodesmus Newmani
Mike Newman, an amateur palaeontologist had been
chiselling away at rocks in Stonehaven when in 2003, he
discovered something in
sandstone sediment
which changed our conceptions about the evolution of
life on earth.
At less than a centimetre long, the millipede he found was
one of the most dramatic discoveries ever made.
The animal was
preserved as a fossil and survived numerous geological
events affecting its host sandstone until it finally came to
light. At over 420 million years old it is
older than any other air breathing creature found, and has
forced scientists into a radical rethink about the great
migration of life from the seas to land.
The National Museum of Scotland with experts from the
Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale
University,confirmed that it is the earliest form of life on
dry land found. Now named Pneumodesmus (air breathing)
Newmani, after Mr. Newman.
An exhibition with information on Pneumodesmus Newmani is staged in the Tollbooth museum, Stonehaven.