Although some of my claims were true — Dunnottar was largely destroyed in sieges in the early 1650s — it was still used as a prison and fortress throughout the seventeenth century and didn't fall into ruin until the early eighteenth, well after my story takes place.
I will surely outrage a lot of purists out there, and considered changing Dunnottar's name, but I wanted you to envision with me just the sort of spectacular Scottish ruin I'd pictured for my family. Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle has always stayed with me, and you're seeing its faint echoes here with my MacAlpins. They are my version of a family of personalities who've installed themselves in a tumbledown fortress.
And I hope you enjoyed the beginning of their story, because there sure are a lot more MacAlpins waiting in the wings.