Crathes Castle (pronounced ) is a 16th-century

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

near

Banchory Banchory (, sco, Banchry, gd, Beannchar) is a burgh or town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is about west of Aberdeen, near where the Feugh River meets the River Dee. Prehistory and archaeology In 2009, a farmer discovered a short cist bu ...

in the

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

region of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It is in the historic county of

Kincardineshire Kincardineshire, also known as the Mearns (from the Scottish Gaelic meaning "the Stewartry"), is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area on the coast of northeast Scotland. It is bounded by Aberdeenshire on the north and ...

. This

harl Harling is a rough-cast wall finish consisting of lime and aggregate, known for its rough texture. Many castles and other buildings in Scotland and Ulster have walls finished with harling. It is also used on contemporary buildings, where it pr ...

ed castle was built by the Burnetts of Leys and was held in that family for almost 400 years. The castle and grounds are owned and managed by the

National Trust for Scotland The National Trust for Scotland for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, commonly known as the National Trust for Scotland ( gd, Urras Nàiseanta na h-Alba), is a Scottish conservation organisation. It is the largest membership organ ...

and are open to the public.

History

Crathes sits on land given as a gift to the Burnetts of Ley family by King

Robert the Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Scottish Gaelic: ''Raibeart an Bruis''), was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. One of the most renowned warriors of his generation, Robert eventual ...

in 1323. In the 14th and 15th centuries the Burnett of Leys built a fortress of timbers on an island they made in the middle of a nearby bog. This method of fortification, known as a

crannog A crannog (; ga, crannóg ; gd, crannag ) is typically a partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes and estuarine waters of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Unlike the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, which were bu ...

, was common in the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...

. Construction of the current tower house of Crathes Castle was begun in 1553 but delayed several times during its construction due to political problems during the reign of

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scot ...

. It was completed in 1596 by Alexander Burnett of Leys, and an additional wing added in the 18th century. Alexander Burnett, who completed the construction of Crathes, began a new project, the early 17th-century reconstruction of nearby

Muchalls Castle Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well-preserved Romanesque, double-groined 13th-century tower house structure, built by the Frasers of ...

. That endeavour was completed by his son, Sir Thomas Burnett. In 1877 Sir Robert Burnett transformed the Great Hall, by adding oak panelling and gilded leather in a faux-medieval style, to satisfy his New York wife Matilda and her guests that they were living in a truly old structure. Robert also purchased a whole new suite of furnishings for the entire structure of both antique and faux antique style as he thought befitted the house. Several painted beam ceilings, long covered by Georgian plasterwork, were re-exposed in 1913 during construction works (they had been spotted during the 1877 works and recovered). Crathes Castle served as the ancestral seat of the

Burnetts of Leys The House of Burnett (Burnet, Burnette, Burnard, Bernard) is a Lowland and Border Scottish family composed of several branches. The Chief of the Name and Arms of Burnett is James Comyn Amherst Burnett of Leys. Origins of the name It remains un ...

until

Sir James Burnett, 13th Baronet Major-General Sir James Lauderdale Gilbert Burnett, 13th Baronet, (1 April 1880 – 13 August 1953) was a British Army officer. Military career Born the son of Colonel Sir Thomas Burnett, 12th Baronet and Mary Elizabeth Cumine and educated at W ...

gave it to the

in 1951. The family continued to live in the house. The Great Hall was stripped back to its bare stone walls in 1953. Another historically important structure in this region linked to the Burnett of Leys family is

Monboddo House Monboddo House () is a historically famous mansion in The Mearns, Scotland. The structure was generally associated with the Burnett of Leys family. The property itself was owned by the Barclay family from the 13th century, at which time a to ...

Fire

A fire damaged portions of the castle (in particular the '' Queen Anne'' wing) on 6 January 1966. After the fire the laird, James Cecil Burnett was limited to the use of " a stump of the service wing" as his actual residence. The quarters and possessions of the on-site National Trust representative, Miss Jean Dodds, were wholly destroyed. It was decided by the National Trust's resident architect

Schomberg Scott Walter Schomberg Hepburn Scott (1910–1998) was a Scottish architect specialising in building restoration. From 1950 until 1975, he did multiple projects for the National Trust of Scotland. Life He was born on 14 September 1910 at Monteviot ...

that the Queen Anne wing should be rebuilt to its original height of two storeys and that the Victorian wing should be wholly demolished. The insurance company paid £65,000 half of which was used to build the Burnett's a new house detached from the castle.

Interior

The castle contains a significant collection of portraits, and intriguing original

Scottish renaissance painted ceilings Scottish renaissance painted ceilings are decorated ceilings in Scottish houses and castles built between 1540 and 1640. This is a distinctive national style, though there is common ground with similar work elsewhere, especially in France, Spain ...

survive in several Jacobean rooms: the ''Chamber of the Muses'', the ''Chamber of Nine Worthies'' and the ''Green Lady's Room''. Original furniture still in the house and on display includes a carved bed and two

caquetoire The caquetoire, or conversation chair, was an armchair style which emerged during the European Renaissance in France. The name caquetoire is derived from ''caqueter'', a French term meaning to chat. The chair was thus named the caquetoire as a ref ...

chairs dating from 1597 and bearing the owners' initials and heraldry.

Garden and grounds

The castle estate contains of woodlands and fields, including nearly of

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate c ...

. Within the walled garden are gravel paths with surrounding specimen plants mostly in herbaceous borders. Many of the plants are labelled with taxonomic descriptions. There is also a grass croquet court at a higher terraced level within the walled garden. Ancient

topiary Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants w ...

hedges of Irish yew dating from 1702 separate the gardens into eight themed areas. Crathes and its grounds are open to tourists throughout the year. A visitor centre provides information about the castle and its surroundings. There is a tea shop on site and a car park for any size of car.

Mesolithic calendar

In 2004 excavations at the castle uncovered a series of pits believed to date from about 10,000 years ago. The find was analysed in 2013 and is considered to be the world's oldest known

lunar calendar A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases (synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, the Gre ...

dating from 8000 BC to about 4000 BC. This dating would make the structure up to five thousand years older than previously recorded time-measuring monuments in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

. The site of

Warren Field Warren Field is the location of a mesolithic calendar monument built about 8,000 BCE. It includes 12 pits believed to correlate with phases of the Moon and used as a lunar calendar. It is considered to be the oldest lunar calendar yet found. It ...

was identified from aerial photography when unusual crop marks were seen by the

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) was an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government that was "sponsored" inanced and with oversightthrough Historic Scotland, an executive ...

References

External links

Crathes Castle
- official site at

Crathes Community Website

Take a Virtual Tour around Crathes Castle Grounds
{{Marr, Aberdeenshire places Castles in Aberdeenshire Houses in Aberdeenshire Category A listed buildings in Aberdeenshire Listed castles in Scotland National Trust for Scotland properties Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes Gardens in Aberdeenshire Historic house museums in Aberdeenshire Tower houses in Scotland