Fetternear Palace

Fetternear Palace, is a ruined medieval palace near Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland. It is considered one of the more important medieval sites in the British Isles, with significant links to Hungary, Austria and Slovenia Fact|date=February 2007.

It includes the remains of a 14th-century palace, home of Bishop Alexander Kininmund who, in 1320, drafted the Declaration of Arbroath, and incorporates the remains of even earlier palaces and sites of settlement dating back 4,000 years.

After the Reformation in Scotland in 1560, it became the principal Scottish seat of the Leslies of Balquhain and Fetternear. It had been granted to the family as a reward for saving St Machar's Cathedral, Aberdeen, from destruction. In the 17th century, the family became successful mercenaries, acquiring through might, diplomacy and marriage a string of properties in central and eastern Europe. Their strong Catholic faith helped sustain Fetternear as a centre of recusancy, as evidenced by a religious plaque carrying IHS and MRA monograms set into the facade of the existing 17th-century palace, now only a shell. Given Leslie links with central Europe, it is significant that the combination of monograms, extremely rare in Scotland, is characteristically used in the Alps.

External links

* [http://education.guardian.co.uk/obituary/story/0,,781802,00.html Nicholas Bogdan (obituary), The Guardian, August 28th 2006]