Maryculter House

Lying along both banks of the River Dee, the Lands of Culter originally included the parishes of Peterculter and Maryculter.

[1] However, about the year 1187, William the Lion granted the portion of the Culter lands on the south bank of the river to the Knights Templar.

[2] Between 1221 and 1236 Walter Byset, Lord of Aboyne, founded the Preceptory or College of the Knights Templar on the site of Maryculter House Hotel.

[2] This became the parish church in 1535, was abandoned in 1782 and is now a fragmentary ruin, the only architectural feature surviving being the piscina built into the south wall.

The Templars were suppressed around 1309 but their lands and the parish church remained in the hands of the Knights Hospitaller until 1563/64.