Just west of Slains Castle, Cruden Bay is said to have been the site of a battle in which the Scots under King Malcolm II defeated the Danes in 1012.

An article in the Buchan Observer from 1897 discusses how he discovered the village:Cruden has an enthusiastic friend in Mr Bram Stoker, Sir Henry Irving’s manager.

[5]Because he was a part-time writer, his Cruden Bay holidays provided him with the largest amount of spare time to write his books.

There was also a parish school since 1606, housed in the two-storey Erroll Schoolhouse[9] from 1834; the Presbyterian Church dedicated to Saint Olaf or commonly called the Old Kirk—built in 1776, with distinctive conical towers added in 1833—and Saint James Episcopal Church, notably the first structure designed by architect William Hay[10] on top of Chapel Hill in 1842.

Port Erroll developed as a fishing community to some extent but the tidal nature of the harbour restricted the size of craft which could operate from it and the village missed out on the herring boom.

Even before the coming of the railway, the long pink curve of the Bay of Cruden sands and scenic cliffscapes to the north were attracting visitors and a small seaside resort was grafting itself onto the fishing community.

The railway was closed to passengers in 1932 and in 1939 the hotel was requisitioned as an army hospital and not re-opened after the war and demolished around 1950.

Although the harbour area and the local primary school are still styled "Port Errol", the railway adventure put the name Cruden Bay firmly on the map.

These days Cruden Bay serves mainly as a dormitory village for the important settlements of Peterhead to the north and Aberdeen to the south.

Although there is little evidence of its presence other than a small complex a few miles south of the village, the sands at Cruden Bay is the place where the 110-mile (180 km) long Forties pipeline operated by Ineos, in use from 1975, finds landfall.