Troubled times!

St Catherine's Dub, a dark, cliff-lined, bay at Collieston to the North of Newburgh-on-Ythan, is traditionally the site of the sinking of a Spanish Armada ship, the Santa Caterina. The site is shown on the map.

That a galleon was indeed wrecked in St. Catherine's Dub was confirmed in 1855 when an 8 foot long, iron cannon was raised from the sea-bed by the Parish Minister, or more likely the Minister's flock!

In reality, however, the Santa Caterina was not part of the Spanish Armada but was outward bound from the Spanish Netherlands and involved in gun-running for Francis, eighth Earl of Erroll's Catholic uprising in 1594.

This is the recovered cannon, originally displayed at the Minister's manse in Collieston, it is now mounted outside the chapel of Haddo House some 15 km inland.