Qualla: Crathes Castle

Crathes Castle: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oyoyoy, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Horn of Leys is a jewelled ivory horn that has hung in Crathes Castle for seven centuries. According to tradition, Robert the Bruce himself presented it to Alexander de Burnard in 1323, along with the lands of Leys, as a reward for loyal service during the Wars of Scottish Independence. Whether Bruce actually touched the horn is unprovable. What is provable is that the Burnett family held these lands from that date until 1951 - over six hundred years of continuous occupation that left the castle layered with the accumulations of a family that never quite left and never quite stopped building.

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Image: Oyoyoy | CC BY-SA 3.0

Crathes Castle: A Tower House for Troubled Times

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rosser Gruffydd, Public domain. Construction of the present castle began in 1553 and was completed in 1596, spanning the tumultuous reign of Mary Queen of Scots and the early years of her son James VI. The tower house form was standard for Scottish lairds of this period - a vertical dwelling that prioritised se...

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Image: Rosser Gruffydd | Public domain

Crathes Castle: The Painted Ceilings

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ikiwaner, CC BY-SA 3.0. Crathes contains some of the finest original painted ceilings in Scotland, dating from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The Chamber of the Nine Worthies features portraits of the same classical and biblical heroes found at Craigievar - Alexander, Caesar, Arthur...

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Image: Ikiwaner | CC BY-SA 3.0

Crathes Castle: Gardens Older Than the Union

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Anne Burgess, CC BY-SA 2.0. The walled gardens at Crathes are among the finest in Scotland, and they begin with the yew hedges planted in 1702 - fifteen years before the Act of Union joined Scotland to England. These massive, sculpted hedges divide the garden into eight distinct areas, each with its own cha...

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Image: Anne Burgess | CC BY-SA 2.0

Crathes Castle: An Ancient Calendar Beneath the Ground

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stanley Howe, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 2004, archaeological excavations in the castle grounds uncovered something unexpected: a series of pits dating to approximately 8000 BC that researchers from the University of Birmingham identified as the world's oldest known lunar calendar. The pits, arranged in an arc, appea...

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Image: Stanley Howe | CC BY-SA 2.0

Crathes Castle: The Castle and Its River

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mihael Grmek, CC BY-SA 3.0. Crathes stands on a wooded hillside above the River Dee, between Banchory and Aberdeen, in the heart of Royal Deeside. The Dee is one of Scotland's great salmon rivers, and the surrounding landscape is a patchwork of farmland, birch woodland, and the purple heather moorland that ...

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Image: Mihael Grmek | CC BY-SA 3.0