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,
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. In 1682 George Nicolson of
Clunypurchased the
Kemnay House and estate from Alexander Strachan of Glenkindie. On 5 July 1682 he was created a
Senator of the College of Justice
The senators of the College of Justice are judges of the College of Justice, a set of legal institutions involved in the administration of justice in Scotland. There are three types of senator: Lords of Session (judges of the Court of Session); ...
and adopted the title Lord Kemnay. Thomas
Burnett of Leys purchased it from him in 1688; Thomas was subsequently imprisoned in the
Bastille,
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.][
]
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.]
See also
*Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
Castles have played an important military, economic and social role in Great Britain and Ireland since their introduction following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Although a small number of castles had been built in England in the 10 ...
*List of castles in Scotland
This is a list of castles in Scotland. A castle is a type of fortified structure built primarily during the Middle Ages. Scholars debate the scope of the word "castle", but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or ...
References
{{coord, 57.22784865, N, 2.442272462, W, display=title
Castles in Aberdeenshire