About a mile south-west of the village lies the ancient Roman Camp of Normandykes.
Visitors to Peterculter Golf Club will notice, to the west, the high ground
between the farms of Alton (Old Town) and Hilton (Hill Town). The earthworks,
985 yards in length, and the nearby ford across the Dee are attributed to the
Romans. They constructed a string of camps on their march northwards. Other
Roman stopping points are at Raedykes, near Stonehaven, and Glenmailen, Ythan
Wells.
Some scholars of the period have linked Normandykes to Lollius Urbicus, a lieutenant of the Emperor Antoninus. Antoninus died in A.D. 161.
A large part of the Culter Estate belonged in early times to Alan the Durward. In 1247, by royal grant, it came into the possession of the Allans of Wauchop. Through marriage the estate passed to the hands of the Cumins of Inverallochy. The oldest part of Culter House are said to have been built by Sir Alexander Cumming, around 1650, in the reign of Queen Mary. His extravagance was legendary and he had his horse shod, for Queen Mary’s wedding, with silver horseshoes.
Unfortunately, as the horse turned they fell off to be lost to the following
crowd. A baronetcy of Cumming of Culter was created in 1672 but has since fallen
out of use. In 1726, the estate was sold by Sir Alexander Cumming to Patrick
Duff of Premnay. Sir Alexander, the 15th Cumin laird of Culter was persuaded by
his wife, after a dream, to go to America to visit the Cherokee Indians. By the
time he returned he had been made Chief and Lawgiver of all the Cherokees but
was now hopelessly in debt. Patrick Duff married Margaret, the daughter of the
Duke of Braco, when she was only eleven years old. He was to lease the Waulkmill
on the Leuchar Burn to the Englishman Bartholomew Smith for a papermill.
Culter House passed through the ownership of the Duffs of Fetteresso to Theodore Crombie, senior partner in the Granholm Woollen Mills. As the house was being renovated, in 1910, a disastrous fire broke out. On his death, in 1922, the house was sold to an architect, Marshall McKenzie. From him, the house and grounds passed to St Margaret’s School for girls to be used as the girls’ boarding house.