[1] Slains Castle next comes into prominence when Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll took part in a Catholic Rebellion in the north of Scotland.

At the king's request, Aberdeen Council provided 20 stone (130 kilograms) weight of gunpowder together with pickaxes and other tools, required for ‘demolishing and casting down of houses and fortalices to the sum of 548 pounds six shillings’.

[6] Aberdeen town council sent the stonemason John Fraser and other workmen to the demolition work at Huntly Castle and Slains, equipped with new shovels.

The Countess, all her remaining days, preferred to her noble title of Countess of Erroll the plain designation of “Guidwife of Clochtow”, because this designation had never been taken by the crown from her, and she had been known by it during the period of her husband’s exile, when he was a wanderer abroad, and only plain “Francis Hay”.’[9] Francis Hay later built a tower house called Bowness on what is now the site of New Slains Castle.

[10] Originally a strongly built 5-storey oblong keep (of which a small part remains), a wall defending the landward side was added in the early 16th century.