Rattray Castle (3)
There are some extremely tall masts in this photo, on the right beyond the loch.  They are part of a high frequency transmitter station that forms part of the Defence High Frequency Communications Service.  They stand on Crimond Aerodrome, which was built in 1944 as 'Royal Navy Air Station Rattray'.  

Coastal defences were built all around the British coastline during WW2, but there is a concentration of them here because of the naval air station.  These defences included a mine-field and anti-tank ditches, one of which started at the loch and ran past the bottom-right corner of this photo and on towards the beach, isolating the stretch of beach to the NE of the loch, between it and the sea.  This pillbox as well as others, were sited to defend the ditch.

Interestingly, in 1943, prior to the construction of the aerodrome, the Loch of Strathbeg was used by the Luftwaffe as an area to drop supplies to spies in the area.  The area to the North of the loch was normally the drop point.  

Anyway, I'm not here because of pillboxes and air stations, I'm here because of the castle.  In fact there used to be a lot more than just a castle here, because this used to be the Burgh of Rattray - probably a 'burgh of barony' from the 13th century, and then a royal burgh from the mid-16th century.  While it was never anything more than a small village, for reasons I will go into later, all signs of occupation have disappeared now with the exception of the motte, the (modern) farm buildings, and the ruins of St. Mary's Church, visible beyond the farm.

(Burghs of barony were distinct from royal burghs, as the title was granted to a landowner (the Comyn Earl of Buchan in this case) who, as a tenant-in-chief, held his estates directly from the crown.)
dji033638stitch crimondaerodrome royalnavalairstationrattray scotland 2022 castle rattrayhead rattraycastle aberdeenshire castlemotte lochofstrathbeg oldrattray theninecastlesoftheknuckle