Crathes Castle - Tower Room. And the Rise and Fall of Valentine & Sons.

            The Postcard

A postally unused Sepiatype Series postcard that was published by Valentine & Sons Ltd. of Dundee and London. The card was printed in Great Britain.

On the divided back of the card is printed:

"Tower Room (showing Horn
of Leys 1323), Crathes Castle.
Property of The National
Trust for Scotland".

Valentine’s Co. Ltd. (Valentine & Sons)

Valentine & Sons were a major postcard publisher of Dundee and London. The Valentine Company, a lithographic printing firm, was founded in 1825 in Dundee, Scotland by John Valentine. 

His son James became an early pioneer of photography, and by the 1860’s his work was being reproduced by the Valentine Company as prints and stereo-views. 

After James’ death in 1879, his two sons, George Dobson and William Dobson took over the Company, but in 1884 George moved to New Zealand where he became a landscape photographer. 

In 1880 Valentine began producing Christmas cards, and by 1896 they began printing postcards. Up until 1882 they had only published views of Scotland, but they began expanding into other tourist markets.

Other offices opened in Jamaica, Madeira, Norway, Tangier, Canada, and New York. They produced a great range of view-cards that were mostly printed in Scotland in tinted halftone lithography or issued as real photo cards. 

In addition they produced a vast array of other products that held photographic images. All interests outside of Great Britain were sold in 1923. By 1929 they had given up their photo portraiture work to concentrate solely on postcard production. 

However they did not anticipate the public’s growing demand for colour cards, and by the 1950’s their business was suffering. In response they put most of their efforts into greetings cards. 

They were purchased by John Waddington & Co. in 1963, which passed on to Hallmark Cards in 1980. Dundee operations closed in 1994. 

Crathes Castle

Crathes Castle is a 16th.-century castle near Banchory in the Aberdeenshire region of Scotland. This harled castle was built by the Burnetts of Leys, and was held in that family for almost 400 years. 

The castle and grounds are owned and managed by the National Trust for Scotland, and are open to the public.

History of Crathes Castle

Crathes sits on land given as a gift to the Burnetts of Leys by King Robert the Bruce in 1323.

In the 14th. and 15th. centuries the Burnetts of Leys built a fortress of timbers on an island that they had made in the middle of a nearby bog. This method of fortification, known as a crannog, was common in the Late Middle Ages. 

Construction of the current tower house of Crathes Castle was begun in 1553, but delayed several times during its construction due to political problems during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots.

It was completed in 1596 by Alexander Burnett of Leys, with an additional wing being added in the 18th. century. 

Crathes Castle served as the ancestral seat of the Burnetts of Leys until Sir James Burnett, 13th. Baronet, gave it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1951. 

A fire damaged portions of the castle (in particular the Queen Anne wing) in 1966. 

Another historically important structure in this region linked to the Burnett of Leys family is Monboddo House.

The Interior of Crathes Castle

The castle contains a significant collection of portraits, and intriguing original Scottish renaissance painted ceilings survive in several Jacobean rooms: the Chamber of the Muses, the Chamber of Nine Worthies, and the Green Lady's Room.

Original furniture still in the house and on display includes a carved bed and two caquetoire chairs dating from 1597 and bearing the owners' initials and heraldry.

The Garden and Grounds

The castle estate contains 530 acres (2.1 km2) of woodlands and fields, including nearly 4 acres (1.6 ha) of walled garden. Within the walled garden are gravel paths with surrounding specimen plants, mostly in herbaceous borders. Many of the plants are labelled with taxonomic descriptions. 

There is also a grass croquet court at a higher terraced level within the walled garden. Ancient topiary hedges of Irish yew dating from 1702 separate the gardens into eight themed areas. 

Crathes and its grounds are open to tourists throughout the year. A visitor centre provides information about the castle and its surroundings. There is a tea shop on site and a car park.

The Crathes Castle Mesolithic Calendar

In 2004 excavations at the castle uncovered a series of pits. The find was analysed in 2013, and is considered to be the world's oldest known lunar calendar, dating from 8000 BC to about 4000 BC. This dating makes the structure up to five thousand years older than previously recorded time-measuring monuments in Mesopotamia.

The site of Warren Field was identified from aerial photography, when unusual crop marks were seen by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
Taken on: February 5, 2022
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