Monboddo House () is a historically famous mansion in

The Mearns Kincardineshire or the County of Kincardine, 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 north-east Scotland. It is bounded by Abe ...

, Scotland. The structure was generally associated with the

Burnett of Leys The House of Burnett (Burnett, 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 ...

family. The property itself was owned by the Barclay family from the 13th century, at which time a

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, to command and defend strategic points ...

structure was erected. In 1593, the

Laird Laird () is a Scottish word for minor lord (or landlord) and is a designation that applies to an owner of a large, long-established Scotland, Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a Baronage of ...

was James Strachan, and thence it passed into the

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier * Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia * Irvine Island * Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada * Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut Scotland *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotlan ...

family and thereafter the Burnetts of Leys. There is a notable

datestone A datestone is typically an embedded stone with the date of engraving and other information carved into it. They are not considered a very reliable source for dating a house, as instances of old houses being destroyed and rebuilt (with the old da ...

adornment on the structure with the

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

of Irvine

impaling Impalement, as a method of torture and execution, is the penetration of a human by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by the complete or partial perforation of the torso. It was particularly used in response to "crimes again ...

the arms of

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking * Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...

with initials R.E. and I.E. and dated 1635, representing the 17th-century couple who reconstructed the house, Robert Ervine ( ''sic'') and Ilizabeth Ervine ( ''sic''). Monboddo House, with its

crow-step A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...

ped gable design, is situated in the Howe of Mearns near the village of

Auchenblae Auchenblae (, ) is a village in the Kincardine and Mearns area of Aberdeenshire, formerly in Kincardineshire, Scotland. The village was known for its weavers, a whisky distillery and the annual Paldie's Fair horse market. Etymology The name is ...

approximately from the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

. The original landholding of the Monboddo Estate was approximately . In 1714 the well-known judge and philosopher

James Burnett, Lord Monboddo James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (baptised 25 October 1714 – 26 May 1799) was a Scottish judge, scholar of linguistic evolution, philosopher and deist. He is most famous today as a founder of modern comparative historical linguistics. In 1767, h ...

was born in Monboddo House. Lord Monboddo is renowned for his service as a member of the

Court of Session The Court of Session is the highest national court of Scotland in relation to Civil law (common law), civil cases. The court was established in 1532 to take on the judicial functions of the royal council. Its jurisdiction overlapped with othe ...

, an author of several works during the

Scottish Enlightenment The Scottish Enlightenment (, ) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Sco ...

and a precursive contributor to the theory of

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

. When he was appointed to the Court of Sessions, Burnett took the title of his father's estate, Monboddo House. In 1773 the author

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

, accompanied by

James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, '' Life of Samuel ...

, visited Monboddo House to call upon James Burnett. It is a

category B listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

Interior detail

Monboddo House fell into a state of disrepair as of the 1960s; nevertheless, a number of notable features remain. With repairs made during the latter part of the 20th century and the good maintenance of the owner as of 2006, the structure is in excellent condition. A well-proportioned hall is on the first floor (second floor in American English), which has relics of early panelling. The hall is provided with two

garderobe Garderobe is a historic term for a room in a medieval castle. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives as its first meaning a store-room for valuables, but also acknowledges "by extension, a private room, a bed-chamber; also a privy". The word der ...

s. While the basement has no vaulting, the westernmost basement chamber is the old kitchen, containing a very large

fireplace A fireplace or hearth is a structure made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficiency, depending on the design. ...

arch. An interior stone spiral

staircase A stairwell or stair room is a room in a building where a stair is located, and is used to connect walkways between floors so that one can move in height. Collectively, a set of stairs and a stairwell is referred to as a staircase or stairway ...

is found in an ascending clockwise manner characteristic of defensive designs of towerhouses of the 14th century. Two eight-centimetre diameter

gun loop An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions (merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a space hollowed out ...

s are found within the 80-centimetre thick

Old Red Sandstone Old Red Sandstone, abbreviated ORS, is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the eastern seaboard of North America. It ...

exterior walls (Hogan, 2006). The front porch is extant, known for the location where Lord Monboddo would take his early morning cold water bath in the open air in the mid-18th century. Other nearby famous noble homes in northeast Scotland built by the Burnetts of Leys are

Crathes Castle Crathes Castle (pronounced ) is a castle, built in the 16th century, near Banchory in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is in the historic county of Kincardineshire. This harled castle was built by the Burnetts of Leys and was owned by the family for ...

and

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 o ...

. There is extant considerable genealogical data concerning the Burnett of Leys family (see particularly G. Burnett, 1901, and Bailey et al., 2005).

Setting details

The surrounding countryside is fertile agricultural land producing grains and providing grazing for

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

. Topographically the region is composed of very gently rolling terrain quite suitable for

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

. In the 18th century, the estate would have amounted to approximately 190 square kilometres. While there were numerous smaller residences on the estate from the 18th century on, in the 19th and 20th centuries more development has taken place closer to Monboddo House in the form of several single-family residences. The estate has a peaceful setting being several kilometres from the nearest dual carriageway, the A90. Sound levels were measured at the estate to be in the range of 48 to 53 dBA.

Twentieth century

In 1930 a postcard of Monboddo House was created by G. Arthur Dixon. After Burnett ownership ceased in the early 1960s the estate fell into disrepair, a situation that has been reversed. As of 2006 the home is in a good state of conservation and repair. The owner reported that there is considerable current interest in the house from people around the world with an interest in Lord Monboddo; particular interest derives not only from researchers in the United Kingdom but also Japan and the United States. Monboddo House is less frequently referred to as Monboddo Castle. James Malcolm Burnett, the last laird of Monboddo, had no children of his own, but had one stepson, who now lives in Canada.

References

Official Burnett Website
* Bailey, Eileen A. FSA, James C.A. Burnett, Charles J. Burnett and Christopher Croly, The Holly and the Horn, Leys Publishing, Banchory (2005)

* Burnett, George,''The family of Burnett of Leys'', edited by J. Allardyce, New Spalding Club, Aberdeen (1901) * Hogan, C.M., ''Monboddo House'', Lumina Technologies, Aberdeen Library Archives, July, 2006 *

Tranter, Nigel Nigel Tranter OBE (23 November 1909 – 9 January 2000) was a writer of a wide range of books on history and architecture, both fiction and non-fiction. He was best-known for his popular and well-researched historical novels, covering centuries ...

, ''

The Fortified House in Scotland ''The Fortified House in Scotland'' is a five-volume book by the Scottish author Nigel Tranter. Written between 1962 and 1970, it covers almost seven hundred buildings in Scotland which fall under the general description of "fortalices, lesse ...

'', Volume IV, (1962 to 1971) {{Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire places, state = collapsed Country houses in Aberdeenshire Category B listed buildings in Aberdeenshire Castles in Aberdeenshire