within the vicinity, a Scots, a Danish and a Norwegian King are buried, marked by the three isolated rocks within Cullen Bay and named the "Three Kings". However, it is possible that these rocks derive their name from the similarity of the name Cullen with Culane (Cologne) as in the medieval mystery play "The Three Kings of Culane". The church was founded as a chapel by King Robert the Bruce. The organs of the wife of King Robert the Bruce are said to have been buried in its old kirk (church) after her death in the area;the King then made an annual payment to the village in gratitude for the treatment of his wife's body and its return south for burial. This payment was stopped after a 1975 reform of Scottish local government. In 2000, the non-payment of this sum was challenged and settled to the village's favour. Robert Burns stayed overnight at, what was then, the old town of Cullen in 1787 during his tour of the Highlands. Travelling from the west to the east he remarked that up to this point, the country is sadly poor and unimproved. The old town of Cullen was demolished in 1822 and its remains are next to Cullen House. It was under James Ogilvy, 7th Earl of Findlater that plans were first mooted for moving the town, but it was not until his successor Lewis Grant-Ogilvy, 5th Earl of Seafield that the plans were enacted. The town was moved away both to modernise (the houses of the old town flooded from water running down off the raised road when it rained heavily) and to provide the Earl with greater privacy. The new town was planned by George MacWilliam, and built between 1820 and 1822. The central market cross in the town square originally stood in the old town. During the building of the new town it was temporarily erected at the top of the ancient fort structure that guards the entrance to the Cullen Burn (stream), known as the Castle Hill. This resulted in the present layout of the village, a generous cross shape of two major streets, Seafield Street and Grant Street, with a central town square and "the Seatown" sandwiched on the false beach between the mouth of the Cullen Burn and the harbour. In the previous layout the town was spread along a road above and parallel to the