Monboddo House

A private house, incorporating a 17th century tower which was a property of the Strachans of Monboddo.

As with historical records of the time, there appears to be much confusion on when exactly the Strachan family acquired Monboddo as various accounts differ substantially.  However, it is safe to presume before 1350. 

The Strachans of Monboddo were one of the oldest kin to the original ‘de Strachan’ nobility.  In fact it was Sir James Strachan of Monboddo who obtained the lands of Thornton in Kincardine (Abt. 1350). He had 2 great grandsons – the elder, Duncan, took the lands of Monboddo, while the younger, Alexander, succeeded him at Thornton. 

James Strachan of Monboddo sold the estate to the Irvine family in 1593, and thereafter it was sold to the Burnetts of Leys.

The house was the home of the Judge James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714-99), author of 'The Origin and Progress of Man and Language', a study of evolution that predated Darwinian theory.

James Boswell traveling with Dr Johnson in the 1770s described Monboddo as "a wretched place, wild and naked with a poor old house."

Robert Burns, however, was much impressed by Lord Monboddo's daughter 'Fair Eliza' while staying there in 1786.

Lord Monboddo’s descendant, James Cumine Burnett, Esq., holds 3000 acres in the shire, valued at £2540 per annum.