WHAT CONNECTS SLAINS CASTLE AND CASTLE DRACULA?
Mike Shepherd
You will see stated on the internet that Slains Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is somehow linked to Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. Now, I’ve researched this connection on account that Slains Castle is a very special place for me: it lies half a mile from my house in Cruden Bay.
The connection between Slains Castle and Dracula appears to be valid. But first of all, I would like to drive a stake into the heart of a common myth and then stuff its mouth full of garlic. Die, you undead myth... Slains Castle did not inspire the plot for Dracula. Bram Stoker had much of the novel’s plot already in place before he first set eyes on Slains Castle in 1892.
Bram’s notes for Dracula survive, and early on – about 1890 or so - he recognised that a castle should be part of the story: not any specific castle, merely the idea of a castle. In the summer of 1890 Bram Stoker visited Whitby and consulted books about Transylvania in the local libraries. Here, he found line drawings of castles in Transylvania atop high rocky crags, Bran Castle was one of these. Inspired by the dramatic settings he saw, he now sited Dracula’s castle in Transylvania.
So how then did Slains Castle become linked with Dracula?
Bram Stoker didn’t start writing Dracula until 1895, and according to his biographer Harry Ludlam this happened in Cruden Bay (then called Port Erroll). When Bram Stoker was writing the early chapters of Dracula in the village, Slains Castle loomed on the horizon. I have no doubt that the sight of the castle fired his imagination while writing the book.
And more. In her 2004 book, Six Buchan Villages Re-visited, Margaret Aitken, a local historian living in Cruden Bay, suggested that the octagonal room in Slains Castle had been used in Dracula. Margaret notes the scene in the novel where Jonathan Harker arrives at Castle Dracula and is beckoned through the front door by the count:
‘The Count halted, putting down my bags, closed the door, and crossing the room, opened another door which led into a small octagonal room lit by a single lamp, and seemingly without a window of any sort.’
Compare this to the layout of Slains Castle as described in 1922 when the castle was up for sale:
‘On the Principle Floor: Entrance Hall (heated with stove) leading to
Central Octagonal Interior Hall (heated with stove and lighted from above)...’
The walls for the octagonal hall still stand inside the ruined shell of Slains Castle, and a brief inspection shows that no window openings are present. A photograph from 1900 when the castle was intact shows that the hall was lit by a single lamp (it survives today and hangs from the ceiling of a room in a London house).
The similarity of these descriptions give credence to the case that the octagonal room in Slains Castle was used in Castle Dracula. Perhaps a jury reviewing this matter in a court of law would hand down a not-proven verdict at the end of their deliberations: this on account that there is no evidence that Bram Stoker was ever inside Slains Castle (don’t believe any biographies that claim otherwise).
But here’s something: Bram probably visited the castle. What is intriguing is that the octagonal hall was once referred to by the castle’s residents as ‘the salon’. A salon, nowadays a name used for a hairdresser or beautician’s studio, was originally a reception room in a large house. The octagonal hall in Slains Castle occupied a central location in the part of the castle containing the principal rooms including the drawing room and the library. Visitors would have been kept waiting in the salon until the butler arrived to tell them, ‘The earl will see you now’, and then they would be led into the drawing room.
Now, it’s quite likely that the castle’s owner, Charles Gore Hay, the 20th Earl of Erroll, would have invited Bram Stoker for a visit. Bram knew everybody in London society, and the earl would not have passed up the opportunity to invite him in for a chat. It’s known that they had previously met at a jamboree in 1894, which was organised to raise funds to build a village hall.
Bram Stoker came to the Cruden Bay area most years after 1892, and wrote his books under the shadow of Slains Castle. There is a much stronger link between the castle and his other novels, including the two books where Bram Stoker mentions Slains Castle by name.
From his 1895 novel, The Watter’s Mou’: ‘At first the cleft runs from west to east, and broadens out into a wide bay of which one side a steep grassy slope leads towards the new castle of Slains...’
And his 1902 novel, The Mystery
of the Sea: ‘My own section for
watching was between Slains Castle and Dunbuy, as wild and rocky a bit of coast
as anyone could wish to see. Behind Slains runs in a long narrow inlet with
beetling cliffs, sheer on either side, and at its entrance a wild turmoil of
rocks are hurled together in titanic confusion.’
Slains Castle appears in
disguised form in other Bram Stoker novels, most notably in The Jewel of Seven Stars. It appears as
Kyllion, ‘a great grey stone mansion of the Jacobean period; vast and spacious,
standing high over the sea on the very verge of a high cliff.’ The name is one
of Bram Stoker’s private jokes which he liked to slip into his novels; Otto
Kyllmann was the editor for Dracula
at the publishing firm Constable. The
events in Kyllion inspired later horror films. Kyllion was where the spirit of
an Egyptian mummy was brought to life with disastrous consequences.
But back to
Dracula again. Although there is not an exact match between the floor plan of
Slains and Castle Dracula – the front door of Castle Dracula was at ground
level, whereas the front door for Slains was accessed up a flight of thirteen steps,
yet once inside, the interior descriptions of both castles mostly match up.
Conclusion: Part of the floor plan of
Slains Castle was probably used for the interior of Castle Dracula.
You can find more on this topic in Shepherd and Stoker, 2021: Slains Castle's Secret History. Available in paperback on Amazon and in local outlets including Cruden Bay Post Office and the nearby shop.
