Crathes Castle, a mansion in Banchory-Ternan parish, NW Kincardineshire, ½ mile N of the left bank of the Dee, and 1¾ WNW of Crathes station, this being 14 miles WSW of Aberdeen, and 3 E by N of Banchory. A fine old chateau-like structure, with a lofty granite tower, square and turreted, it was built partly in 1528, partly at later periods, and is the seat of the Burnetts of Leys, whose founder, Alexander de Burnard, in 1324 obtained a charter of lands in Kincardineshire. His great-grandson, Robert Burnett (flo. 1409), was the first ` Baron o' Leys,' a title familiar from an ancient ballad; and Thomas Burnett, twelfth proprietor of Leys, and uncle of Bishop Gilbert Burnett, was in 1626 Created a baronet of Nova Scotia. His eighth descendant, Sir Robert Burnett of Leys, eleventh Bait. (b. 1833; suc. 1876), owns 12,025 and 84 acres in Kincardine and Aberdeen shires, valued at £5007 and £109 per annum. See Banchory-Ternan.
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