Aberdeenshire Farming Museum

The Aberdeenshire Farming Museum stands on the grounds of the former Aden House estate near Old Deer. The site covers 4000 hectares between Old Deer and Mintlaw, with the museum occupying 92 hectares. The museum’s centrepiece is the former stable block, arranged in a semicircle around a circular yard. This is one of Scotland’s rare rounded agricultural complexes. A four-storey dovecote rises above the central section, topped by a dome with a Doric lantern. The buildings were commissioned by Alexander Russell and his son in the 18th and early 19th centuries. John Smith designed the stable block around 1800 and later remodelled the main house. After the house fell into ruin in the 20th century, the district council restored the stables between 1976 and 1980. In the 1990s the nearby Hareshowe Farm, built in 1935, was dismantled and rebuilt on the estate. Visitors walk past the two-storey coach house and various workshops built of rubble stone with Harl-pointed walls and grey slate roofs. The semicircular stable block frames a broad open space, while the dovecote’s dome and lantern mark the skyline. The surrounding parkland offers wide views across the estate’s fields and woodlands.