of inspiration Bram Stoker's hand-written notes for Dracula identify a setting for a castle early on (about 1890). At this stage, no specific castle had been identified as inspiration. Having taken Transylvania as the location for Castle Dracula, it's possible that he copied information about a castle at Vécs from one of his sources on Transylvania, the book by Major E.C. Johnson. A further option is that Stoker saw an illustration of Castle Bran (Törzburg) in the book on Transylvania by Charles Boner, or read about it in the books by Mazuchelli or Crosse. In 1893 Bram Stoker discovered Cruden Bay in Aberdeenshire in Scotland, which became the regular spot for his monthly summer holiday, largely devoted to writing. Parts, if not most, of Dracula were written there. Nearby Slains Castle appears to have inspired part of the floor plan for Castle Dracula, in particular the octagonal room: ‘The Count halted, putting down my bags, closed the door, and crossing the room, opened another door which led into a small octagonal room lit by a single lamp, and seemingly without a window of any sort.’ Compare this with the description of Slains Castle from a 1922 sales document: ‘On the Principle Floor: Entrance Hall (heated with stove) leading to Central Octagonal Interior Hall (heated with stove and lighted from above).’ Although the historical citadel of Poenari built under Vlad Tepes is not mentioned in any of Stoker's research notes, Sir Christopher Lee notes in the documentary film In Search of Dracula (1974) the resemblance between it and the fictional Castle Dracula - 'Bram Stoker did not know that a real Castle Dracula existed. But his description of the castle in the Borgo Pass is uncannily apt. The real Castle Dracula is perched on top of a rock 1,000 feet above the Arges River in Wallachia.' Tourist attraction Since 1997, Bran Castle in Bran (Törzburg) near Brașov has been marketed as "Dracula's Castle". However, Bran Castle is not mentioned in the book "Dracula". The website promoting Bran Castle claims it was one of Vlad the Impaler's temporary residences. Since Van Helsing and Mina in Chapter 25 do not identify Count Dracula as the historical Vlad III Dracula (Vlad Țepeş or Vlad the Impaler) but as a nameless "other of [the Dracula] race", living "in a later age", this claim does not support the identification of Stoker's fictitious building with the Bran