Kemnay House is a 17th-century

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

, now incorporated in a later house, about south and west of

Inverurie Inverurie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Uraidh'' or ''Inbhir Uaraidh'', 'mouth of the River Ury') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland at the confluence of the rivers Ury and Don, about north-west of Aberdeen. Geography Inverurie is in the vall ...

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 ...

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 ...

, and south of

Kemnay Kemnay ( Gaelic: ''Camnaidh'') is a village west of Aberdeen in Garioch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. History The village name ''Kemnay'' is believed to originate from the Celtic words that mean "little crook in the river" due to the village loc ...

, to the south of the River Don.Coventry, Martin (1997) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Goblinshead. p.219

History

During the 16th century, Kemnay was a property of the Douglases of

Glenbervie Glenbervie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Gleann Biorbhaidh'', Scots: ''Bervie'') is located in the north east of Scotland in the Howe o' the Mearns, one mile from the village of Drumlithie and eight miles south of Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire. The river Be ...

. It was acquired by the Crombie family, who built the present house. Thomas Burnett of Leys purchased it in 1688; he was subsequently imprisoned in the

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was sto ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, at the instigation of Jacobite enemies. Alterations, including the extension of the wings, took place in 1833. The house is still occupied. Kemnay House (geograph 1836648)

Structure

The original tower house was a tall

L-plan An L-plan castle is a castle or tower house in the shape of an L, typically built from the 13th to the 17th century. This design is found quite frequently in Scotland, but is also seen in England, Ireland, Romania, Sardinia, and other location ...

building. The entrance in the reentrant angle, above which a stair turret arises this from the second floor, has been replaced. There is a

vaulted In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

, with the kitchen in the wing. The cream-washed walls are pierced by small windows. The three-storey wing, which has a bell gable, was an addition in 1688. There are traces of a curtain wall. The porch on the west front, and a granite water tower, were additions in 1833.

References

{{coord, 57.22784865, N, 2.442272462, W, display=title Castles in Aberdeenshire

History

Structure

See also

References