Department of Archaeology & Anthropology

Staff

Penny Dransart

FETTERNEAR AND THE SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL PALACES PROJECT

Illustration: The excavation at Fetternear in 1997. Photograph: SEPP

The mansion of Fetternear before the fire in
1919. Photograph from the Cormack
collection, by courtesy of the Bailies
of Bennachie

The Bishop’s Palace Fetternear 2005-2006 Report [pdf - 866k]

Introduction

Fetternear was the summer palace of the bishops of Aberdeen. In the 13th century, Fetternear was a masonry castle surrounded by a moat, which was replaced in the 14th century by a perimeter wall. After the Reformation in 1560, the site was redeveloped as a tower-house and, later, as a mansion. It became the family home of the Leslies of Balquhain. This post-Reformation history is particularly interesting because, in the 19th century, the Leslies conducted an early archaeological dig on the site and made a conjectural reconstruction of the foundations of the medieval bishop's palace.

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