Kemnay House is located about sixteen miles from Aberdeen, and four miles south-west of Inverurie, the nearest town. It is reached from Aberdeen on the A96 to the Inverness road turning off at Broomhill and through the village by Monymusk and then to Alford.  The House was built in the mid-sixteenth century and extended in 1638.

It came into the hands of the Seton's of Menie family who were of the House of Seton of Meldrum, and were descended from John Seton of Menie and Aquhorthies who was Chamberlain to the Earl of Dunfermline at Fyvie Castle, and from his younger son, William Seton of Haddo; the House of Kemnay then  remaining for two generations of the Seton's before the family relocated to Blair Atholl and into the Service of the Duke of Atholl.