Monboddo House

The property itself was owned by the Barclay family from the 13th century, at which time a tower house structure was erected.

Monboddo House, with its crow-stepped gable design, is situated in the Howe of Mearns near the village of Auchenblae approximately nine miles (14 km) from the North Sea.

Lord Monboddo is renowned for his service as a member of the Court of Session, an author of several works during the Scottish Enlightenment and a precursive contributor to the theory of evolution.

An interior stone spiral staircase is found in an ascending clockwise manner characteristic of defensive designs of towerhouses of the 14th century.

Two eight-centimetre diameter gun loops are found within the 80-centimetre thick Old Red Sandstone exterior walls (Hogan, 2006).

The front porch is extant, known for the location where Lord Monboddo would take his early morning cold water bath in the open air in the mid-18th century.

James Malcolm Burnett, the last laird of Monboddo, had no children of his own, but had one stepson, who now lives in Canada.