The tenth Earl Marischal supported the Jacobites at the battle
of Sheriffmuir, and the Pretender to the Scottish Crown spent
Chrsitmas 1715 at the Earl's house of Fetteresso. Both escaped
to exile and the castle was forfeit to the Crown in 1716.
The new town was laid out in the late 18th century by Robert
Barclay, Laird of Ury and the bridge over the river Carron was
built by him in 1781. The Market Buildings followed in 1826,
and the spire extended to 130 feet in 1856. The house of Robert
Thomson (b1822), the inventor of the pneumatic tyre, is on the
south side of the market square. His tyre was patented a couple
of years before the railway came to Stonehaven in 1847.
The County Buildings (now the Sheriff Court) were completed
in 1863, and St Mary's RC Church by JR Mackenzie of Aberdeen
in 1877. The Mill Inn also at Bridgefield was an important coaching
house, but has now been converted into flats.
On the beach side of the square on Allardice Street stands the
Town Hall, build by public subscription in 1878. Further south
on Allardice Street, the modern black of flats is built in the
warehouse of the Carron Tanworks, which was the town's big business
of 100 years ago.