General Burnett Memorial Tower - Banchory, Aberdeenshire.
Posted by: 
creg-ny-baa
N 57° 02.132 W 002° 31.853
30V E 528470 N 6321439
Tall circular tower on the summit of Scolty, a hill to the south-west of the town of Banchory, commemorating General William Burnett.
Waymark Code: WM11EFN
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/08/2019
Views: 1
William Burnett (1762-1839) was a landowner from the Aberdeenshire (then Kincardineshire) town of Banchory in Scotland. He became a general and fought alongside the Duke of Wellington in the Napoleonic Wars.
This 50 foot high rubble-built tower with a 14 foot diameter was erected in his memory in 1842 on the summit of Scolty, a 299 metre hill just over a mile to the south-west of Banchory. An inscription on the eastern side reads as follows:
'ERECTED
TO THE MEMORY OF
GENERAL WILLIAM BURNETT
OF BANCHORY LODGE
Born 19 Feb: 1762. died 7 Feb: 1839.
By his numerous Friends
And Tenantry 1842'
Underneath here is a metal plaque which reads:
'RESTORED BY
PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION
1964'
The tower was further refurbished in 1992 to mark the 150th anniversary and was attended by the Prince of Wales, with over a hundred people in attendance. A further plaque reads as follows:
'TO COMMEMORATE THE VISIT BY
H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES
15th SEPTEMBER 1992
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 150th ANNIVERSARY
AND THE RESTORATION OF THE MONUMENT BY
THE ROTARY CLUB OF BANCHORY TERNAN'
All these plaques are situated above the entrance to the tower which contains a circular staircase, leading to the top where there is a viewing platform erected by the Rotary Club following the refurbishment.
The hill can be climbed by a series of paths from the Scolty Woodland Car Park (pay and display) on the north-west side of the hill.