The original village of Muchalls was beside the sea, in the bay beyond Doonie Point to the south and was a thriving fishing settlement when Alexander Burnett of Leys bought the Muchalls estate from the Barony of Cowie in the early 17th century. Inhabitants of "Seatoun of Muchalls" are recorded in the Fetteresso parish registers and in 1760 the fishertoun is mentioned as having a harbour or pier.

However, after two disasters in ten years when all the crew in two fishing boats perished, the old village of Muchalls was abandoned in the late 18th century. Some fishermen moved to Stonehaven, others moved to work on the land and the village on the site of the former settlement of Stranathro, three quarters of a mile to the north, became what is known as Muchalls today. The derivation of the name Muchalls is not clear. On old maps it is spelt Montquhallis, which might indicate a hill, but some sources say the name comes from the Gaelic for the moss of Coille. Many locals believe the name is simply to do with a mucky pond. It was certainly a lively farming community in the 13th century, with regular cattle fairs.

For any of the following walks the best place to park a car is in the newly- landscaped Marine Terrace car park, found at the bottom of the hill in the south-east corner of Muchalls.

To come by bus, you should take the 101, 107 or 117 between Aberdeen and Stonehaven which stop on the dual carriageway outside the village.

MUCHALLS TO MUCHALLS CLIFFS AND MUCHALLS BEACH

This is an easy walk to a beautiful view of the Stacks of Muchalls and down to a rocky beach. Beware of steep cliffs. Distance half a mile round trip. The large building beside the car park was the Marine Hotel which was once a holiday resort hotel, with a nine hole golf course. The train would stop here. Pipistrelle bats can be seen around the hotel and village hall on summer evenings. There is a First World War memorial visible on the other side of the tracks. Take the road between the hotel and railway line and follow it under the railway bridge. Follow the gravel track directly ahead. Keep children and pets close to you, as the paths near the cliff edge have been badly damaged by heavy rains. The adjacent stream flows under the path and emerges through a bank of willow to descend the cliffs in a waterfall. Along the path are clumps of meadowsweet, red campion, and goosegrass which will cling to your clothes. At Muchalls Cliffs, there is a bench where you can enjoy good views around the bay. Robert Burns called the scenery "a good deal romantic". A cave, accessible at low tide was said to lead to a tunnel used by smugglers reaching as far as Muchalls Castle. It is supposed to have been blocked since the construction of the railway.

The legend of a phantom piper is also connected to the cave. The large natural arch known as Dunnyfell is one of the many interesting geological formations along the coast. The cliffs are made of old pre-Cambrian rock, at least 600 million years old, formed long before the dinosaurs, when Scotland was underwater at the equator. This rock was formed from sea-bottom mud and sand deposited in layers, which were folded when raised up along with the Grampian mountains. Large white veins of quartz can be seen. One path leads down to the Muchalls beach just before the clifftop seat. There is an exposure of flaking brown rock just before the bench halfway down. This is a mica schist which gets its brown colour from its rusting iron content. There is Burnet rose and pink thrift growing above it. In spring, you can see white greater stitchwort, yellow primroses, purple violets, and white-flowered scurvygrass with its bladder-like seed pods. These are followed in summer by pea-like yellow bird's-foot trefoil, lady's bedstraw with its frothy yellow flowers, bluebells (harebells) and yellow rock-rose.

At the bridge at the bottom is mint-like woundwort, with a strong smell. The large area of tall grass is common reed, accompanied by stinging nettle. Most of the boulders and pebbles on the shore, rounded by the action of the waves, have worn down from the local rocks, but some are obviously different. Granites and basalts have been brought by glaciers from the mountains, sandstone and pudding-stone have somehow arrived from south of Stonehaven. Some rocks may have hitched a ride on icebergs. You can continue the walk by following the directions for WALK 3a below. If you do not wish to go on any further, you may return to the cliff top, where another short path leads north. The path leads to tank traps built to repel invasion during W.W.II. There are good views of the coastline to the north, the rock formations clearly showing the contortions of the layers, when the rock was folded and there are many caves and arches. The Brown Jewel is visible on the point. The Old Man of Muchalls can be seen, but not fully appreciated from this angle of view.

MUCHALLS BEACH TO EASTER MUCHALLS AND MUCHALLS SHORE

This walk, is along the rocky shore and cli~jrtops and care is advised. This route adds an extra mile and a half starting from Muchalls Beach, if you go southwards, you can reach the next bay by walking along the rocky shore at low tide. Between the large stack and the headland, there are rock faces where you can see how the rock was folded. In the bay at low tide, you may notice a dyke of pink rocks in the sea. This is felsite, a fine-grained igneous rock, formed in cracks in the bedrock. If you wish to explore further, be careful that your route back is not cut off by incoming tide, since escape routes up the headlands are either steep, or unpleasant with head-high stinging nettles. The next bay is covered in round pink stones.

A small stream can be seen coming from a cave. The felsite had been quarried above and the stream's path was diverted into the cave. You can now travel through an arch to the waterfall where the Burn of Muchalls joins the sea, though you will need to go across the stream to see it from this side. It is best to return the way you came, through the bay of pink stones, to the bay with the pink dyke. To continue southwards, look for a pink cliff face, and, on the top of the cliffs to the left, the ruin of a stone house. You can then clamber up the steep path, keeping to the left, through the greater woodrush, onto the headland. Here you will find yourself beside a lovely pool, scene of the drowning of Ophelia in France Zeffirelli's film of Hamlet. A temporary castle was erected south of Muchalls for filming the night scenes. In summer, the pool has much pink purslane, forget- me-nets, creeping buttercup and yellow monkey flowers. Upstream, the path crosses the Burn of Muchalls by means of a wooden bridge.

There is a pleasant grotto here, with ferns on the rocks, white rose of Scotland, hoheysuckle and pink Himalayan balsam. If you wish to return to Muchalls at this point, take the footpath up the hill to the right alongside the wall. You can see red campion in June, pinkish-purple bell heather and wild rose in July, light purple ling · or common heather in August. There are tall plants with yellow daisy flowers and frilly leaves called ragwort. This is poisonous, and animals will not eat it. However, it is a foodplant for the black and yellow caterpillar of the day-flying red cinnabar moth, seen in July, and these become poisonous too.

This path will bring you to the millpond of the old Mill of Muchalls, shown on Ordnance Survey maps as Easter Muchalls. If, at the bridge over the Burn of Muchalls, you wish to continue southwards, you can follow a path along the top of the cliffs. As you admire the waterfall, see if you can find an inconspicuous oak tree growing against the cliffs, badly disfigured by the wind. There is an extensive drystone dyke around the field that is largely composed of pink rocks. Follow the path around Doonie Point with great care as it is very close to the cliff edge. It is probably safer at Doonie Point to take the prominent path down to a small cove and walk along the water's edge at low tide into the next bay, known as Muchalls shore. This was the site of the original village of Muchalls but there is no trace of the old fishertoun or harbour today. You should now go back the way you have come, then up to Easter Muchalls. At Easter Muchalls, walk towards the railway viaduct. Just before the embankment, turn right and go through a gate into the field. There is a right-of- way through the fields to Muchalls. When you rejoin the Muchalls beach track, you should go back under the railway bridge and right to the Marine Terrace Car Park.

MUCHALLS TO EASTER MUCHALLS

This is an easy walk across fields to a picturesque pool. It can be quite muddy. Distance one and a half miles. This walk is an easier version of the one just described. Starting from the Marine Terrace car park, take the road between the hotel and railway, and go under the bridge. Immediately turn right, going through a kissing gate into a field usually containing cows. This can be very muddy. Stay close to the railway fence, and walk through 3 fields, going through another gate to a road beside a duck pond. This is Easter Muchalls. Turn left, and follow the road toward the coast, keeping to the left of the houses. Follow the wall down, and the trail will bring you down to a bridge, and the pool described in the previous walk. Do not let children and animals go farther than the pool, because there are dangerous cliffs.

MUCHALLS TO RITCHIE SHORE

This is a short walk down steep steps to a small picturesque stony beach. Distance half a mile. From Muchalls phone box, walk east along Dunnyfell Road. The middle one of the three cottages on the left was the house used by the estate factor of the Endowments Trust which owns and maintains much of the land around the village. The three houses would originally have been single storey like the others in the old village and possibly heather-thatched. Turn right past the village green, then down across the bridge over the railway. Go straight ahead, along a footpath to the left of the house. There is a dangerous cliff directly ahead. Lady's bedstraw, bluebells (harebells) and Scotch rose grow at the clifftop. Follow the extremely steep steps to the bottom. In front of you stands an interesting stack with a human profile, the Old Man of Muchalls. There is bugle and wild cabbage in spring, followed by foxglove and silverweed in the summer, with blue fescue grass near the high water mark. Fulmars, kittiwakes and guillemots nest on ledges on the cliffs and house martins make their mud nests on the rock face. You should now return the way you came.