Burn of Muchalls

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The Burn of Muchalls is an easterly flowing stream in Aberdeenshire, Scotland that discharges to the North Sea. Its point of discharge is on a rocky beach set with scenic sea stacks.[1] Flowing principally over agricultural lands, the Burn of Muchalls traverses through the hamlet of the Bridge of Muchalls, flows beneath the A90 road and thence to the rugged shoreline of the North Sea slightly to the south of Doonie Point. Just above the discharge to the North Sea is a scenic pool, used in the drowning scene of Ophelia in the Franco Zeffirelli film Hamlet.[2] A northern fork of the Burn of Muchalls flows over lands of Muchalls Castle prior to the confluence with the mainstem Burn of Muchalls within the Bridge of Muchalls.

[edit] History

The Romans reached this drainage basin in the period 100 to 300 AD, and founded one of their Roman Camps at Raedykes, situated near the southern edge of the watershed. In the Middle Ages the only coastal land route over the Mounth crossed the Burn of Muchalls at the Bridge of Muchalls;[3] this ancient road is called the Causey Mounth.

Near the mouth of the Burn of Muchalls is an old mill that earlier functioned to harness the power of the flowing burn.[4] There is also a fisherman's stone bothy on the cliffs near the burn overlooking the North Sea.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Profile of the village of Muchalls, Scotland
  2. ^ Hamlet, the film, directed by Franco Zeffirelli (1990)
  3. ^ C.Michael Hogan, Causey Mounth, Megalithic Portal, ed. by Andy Burnham, Nov. 3, 2007
  4. ^ Brian H. Watt, Old Newtonhill and Muchalls, Stenlake Publishing, Glasgow (2005)

[edit] See also


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