Brodie Castle, Stables

The stables block as it presently exists is a structure of four principal periods.

It had been built around and now incorporates the north gable wall of a pre-existing range, which is described separately, see B03. The stables do not appear on Brown’s 1770 estate plan, or McLean’s of 1824, and was probably built shortly thereafter as part of a programme of general estate improvement.

A handsome and substantial structure that was built in a restrained classical idiom, symmetrically designed with 3 arched openings on each long elevation and paired bulls-eye windows above. The latter acted as ventilators for a substantial loft, the lower parts of the windows being in-filled with masonry, plastered and, presumably, painted with a trompe-l’oi mirror image of the window above. The structure was well built of mortared rubblework. The substantial breadth of the building (over 9m) explains the curious roof structure which was originally supported by posts rising from a central spine wall. A test excavation at the NW gable failed to locate evidence for a contemporary stair to the loft entrance above; access must have been by ladder. The seatings for a hoist survive to the side of the entrance that had held an iron swey which would have allowed loads to be swung into the loft following lifting. The loft entrance was formed of reused stones from an earlier doorway, its dressings displaying chamfered arises suggesting a similar period to the phase 1 structure – most likely recovered from the NW part of the earlier range depicted in 1770 and 1824 (B03) but demolished for the erection of the stables structure.

Works of c1846 An ink and wash proposal by George Fowler Jones for the redesign of the stables, dated 1846, survives in the Brodie archive; this included

a 5-storied Scots Baronial tower at the south end of the stables – titled the Pigeon Tower, evidently intended as a doocot. Associated with this the stables

were to be reordered by the infilling of the arched openings, the application of buttresses and the construction of a tympany gable, crow steps, etc. In

the event the early range (B03) was demolished in preparation for the tower, buttresses were applied and the archways in-filled but the work was abruptly

halted at that point. The reason for this appears to have been the removal of the central poses supporting the roof structure and consequent destabilisation of the building whose outer walls are considerably out of plumb. The roof structure was propped and braced with ironwork but further works were abandoned.

Survey and assessment of the standing fabric of the Old Stables by Addyman & Kay was carried out in August 1999 in advance of conservation works. Analysis of the standing fabric, following excavations in 1995 (DES 1998, p.66), further refined the understanding of the structure.

Modern works The structure was recently repaired and modernised, converted for use as a field centre/ lecture facility, c2000.

(BRD14 B02)

Information from NTS (SCS) February 2016