Crathes Castle

Overview

2022 Update - Castle opens on  7 Jan 2022. Full details of opening times are below.

Castle tours can't be pre-booked, but they run tour slots at 10 min intervals.

Grounds are open daily dawn to dusk.

Crathes is a pretty 16th century tower house standing on an estate granted to the Burnett family by King Robert the Bruce.

Crathes Castle was originally built to be defended and it has some ingenious defensive features. For example, the 11th step of the spiral staircase that you climb is slightly higher than the others. This ‘trip’ step, was intended to unbalance attackers storming the castle.

Through the years, Crathes Castle became an increasingly civilized  residence and what you see today is a comfortably furnished and very attractive building.

The tour of Crathes starts in the castle's kitchens and store room. You then climb through several floors of the castle and pass through:

• the High Hall with its partially painted ceiling,
• the Victorian bedroom and Laird's Bedroom (with original 1594 bed)
• the room of the Nine Nobles with its painted wooden beams,
• a room containing the archives of the Burnett family
• the Gallery which contains the 1626 Charter of Nova Scotia in which Sir Thomas Burnett is granted land.
• the room haunted by the Green Lady
• the Muses Room with its tapestries
• the Stone Hall where a huge two handed sword is hung.

Knowledgeable guides are on hand to tell you about the history of the rooms and their ghosts.

A tour of Crathes will take about 45 mins, but don't forget to visit the walled garden, which is a beautiful feature of the castle.

Also beside Crathes, there is an excellent adventure playground called "Go Ape". This playground involves a series of wooden swing bridges suspended from trees.