A hell of a day in Collieston

What a difference a day makes, yesterday it was like the Mediterranean, albeit it a tad colder, today it is like the Arctic.

It was probably a day such as this, when, in 1594, the Santa Catalina was wrecked in St Catherine's Dub, the dark, cliff-girt, bay, towards the top of the photograph.

The ship, from the Spanish Netherlands, was gun-running for Francis, eighth Earl of Erroll's Catholic uprising in 1594. He died in 1631 and was buried 'upone the nicht' in the kirk at Slains. His body was 'convoyit quyetlie with his awin domesticks and countrie freindis and with torche licht'. It was the Earl's wish that the expense thus saved should be given to the poor.