Maryculter House is an historic structure along the Royal Deeside in Kincardineshire, Scotland. Access to this structure is via the B9077 road. The church and graveyard associated with Maryculter House are designated national monuments. A hotel in modern times, this building is erected on the site where Knights Templar trained circa 1227 AD. Close by to the north is where Roman soldiers on the Elsick Mounth emerged from their march from Raedykes to cross the River Dee, on the northern bank of which the Normandykes Roman Camp stands. Its former park land is now Templars' Park Scout Campsite.
Traces of early peoples from the Stone Age to the Iron Age has been found in and around the Templars' park area. The first recorded "camper" in the Templars' Park district was the Roman Emperor, Septimius Severus. He visited the area in the year A.D.210 during a large-scale raid which extended northwards as far as the Moray Firth. The Roman Legions forded the River Dee at Tilbouries, just west of Templars' Park, and on the high ground on the north bank of the river built a great marching-camp capable of accommodating 12,000 men. This Roman camp-site is known as Normandykes and its outline can still be traced.
Maryculter ( listen ) or Kirkton of Maryculter is a village in the Lower Deeside area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The River Dee separates it from the town of Peterculter, and the B979 road runs through Maryculter. There are two hotels: The Old Mill Inn, a former coaching inn that dates back 200 years, and Maryculter House Hotel. At the edge of the village of Maryculter is a public forest land, known as the Oldman Wood, through which flows the Crynoch Burn. Also the children's theme park, StoryBook Glen, which also consists of a shop and restaurant is located near the old church which is still in use today as a Church of Scotland. Other notable vicinity buildings are the Lairhillock Inn and Muchalls Castle.
Prehistoric habitation in the Maryculter area is known through archaeological sites such as Balbridie situated somewhat west of Maryculter. Roman legions marched from Raedykes to Normandykes, marching slightly west of Maryculter, as they sought higher ground evading the bogs of Red Moss and other low-lying mosses associated with the Burn of Muchalls. That march used the Elsick Mounth, one of the ancient trackways crossing the Grampian Mountains, lying west of Netherley.