Crathes Castle

Crathes Castle

A fairy-tale tower house

In the gentle countryside of Royal Deeside in Aberdeenshire stands one of the prettiest castles in Scotland. Crathes is a tower house — the kind of tall, compact castle that Scottish lairds built in the sixteenth century, with thick lower walls for safety and a flourish of turrets, gables and carved stone at the top. Painted in warm pinkish harling (a rough plaster coating), it rises above its famous gardens like something from a fairy tale.

Crathes was built mostly between 1553 and 1596, though the family who owned it had lived on the land for far longer.

The Burnetts and the Horn of Leys

The castle was the home of the Burnett of Leys family for around 350 years. Their connection to the land goes back to one of the most famous figures in Scottish history. In 1323, King Robert the Bruce granted the lands of Leys to the Burnetts, and as a token of the gift he is said to have given them an ivory hunting horn.

That object, the Horn of Leys, still hangs inside the castle today, more than 700 years later. For the family it was the proof of their right to the land, treasured from generation to generation.

The painted ceilings

Crathes hides a wonderful secret on its upper floors: some of the finest painted ceilings in Scotland. In rooms such as the Chamber of the Nine Nobles and the Chamber of the Muses, the wooden ceilings are covered in bright pictures and verses from around 1600 — heroes, musicians, figures of virtue, and rhymes that gave advice on how to live well.

For centuries these paintings were hidden under later plaster, and were only rediscovered and uncovered long afterwards. They give us a rare glimpse of the colour and learning of a Scottish noble household four hundred years ago.

Gardens, hedges and a Green Lady

Crathes is just as famous for its gardens as for its castle. The walled garden is divided into colourful "rooms" by towering yew hedges, some of which were planted around 1702 and have been clipped into shape for more than three centuries.

Like many old Scottish castles, Crathes has its ghost story too: the Green Lady, said to appear in one of the rooms carrying a baby, has been part of the castle's legend for generations.

Today Crathes belongs to the National Trust for Scotland, and visitors can climb its turret stairs, gaze up at the painted ceilings, hunt for the Horn of Leys, and lose themselves among the great green hedges of its garden.