Stonehaven, the county town of Kincardineshire, is a fishing port on the north-east coast of Scotland. During the 1870s the herring shoals attracted boats from the north-east and south-west of England, France and northern Europe. The completion of railway links between Edinburgh and Aberdeen in 1850 had accelerated the transformation of Stonehaven into a popular holiday resort and a place for painters and photographers, many drawn by its proximity to Dunnottar Castle. The elongated pillar format of this striking compositional design, with the flattened rectangles of the old houses and the russet sails of the ‘Fifies’ forming a pattern that climbs up the canvas surface, suggests that Fettes Douglas had been studying Japanese prints, especially those of Hiroshige.