Randolph, Bishop of Aberdeen built himself a house here which was altered and completed in the 1330s by Bishop Kyninmund, but the “auld founds: representing what appear to be the last traces of an L-plan tower house with walls 6 ½’ thick close to the existing ruin must be late 14th or early 15th century. In 1549 Bishop William Gordon leased the barony of Fetternear to his kinsman the Earl of Huntly, but later it was taken back and granted to John Leslie, 8th Baron of Balquhain. William Leslie, 9th Baron, Sheriff of Aberdeenshire, protected the Bishop and his cathedral from the band of fanatics called The Congregation who swept into Aberdeen in 1559. In return the Bishop converted a lease into a direct grant in 1566. A modest house was then built out of the materials of the long-neglected older building. From 1627 to 1690 Fetternear was held by the Abercrombies, although they temporarily fled in 1640 when a Covenant force under the Earl Marischal attacked the house. After the house was returned to the Leslies it was greatly extended by a long range build on the same axis by Patrick Leslie. Further extensions were made in 1818-1819 and 1841-1844. Consumed by fire in 1919, the ruins are now in real danger of major collapse.
