Earlshall. View from west.

Description Earlshall. View from west.

Date c. 1885

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 747695

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of F 1895

Scope and Content Earlshall, Leuchars, Fife, from the east (now restored) Earlshall, a 16th-century tower-house built for Sir William Bruce in 1546 and completed for his great-grandson and namesake in 1617, stands in a rural setting about 1km to the east of the village of Leuchars. The house, which by the late 19th century had fallen into a semi-ruinous state, was photographed c.1885 by Erskine Beveridge before being 'carefully and judiciously restored' in 1891-8 by the architect, Sir Robert Lorimer. This rubble-built house is constructed on an L-plan, with the longer wing of the 'L' (centre) forming a main rectangular block lying in an east-west direction. A massive, oval-shaped tower projects from its north-east corner (right), and a rectangular wing projects southwards at its west end (left), with a rounded stair-tower in the re-entrant angle which contained the main entrance to the house. The four-storeyed main block, which faces south across an enclosed courtyard, has a steeply pitched slated roof with crowstepped gables, and an upper storey of dormer windows, added in the 17th century, that are steeply pedimented. Within the pediments are the arms of the Bruce and Lindsay families, representing Sir William Bruce (the great-grandson) and his wife, Agnes Lindsay. Sir Robert Lorimer (1864-1929) set up in independent architectural practice in Edinburgh in 1892, and by 1911, had become Scotland's leading architect. He built or totally remodelled some 50 country houses in Britain, and also restored many castles, mansions and churches. Earlshall, which had been empty for more than 70 years before its restoration was begun, was Lorimer's first restoration, and was carried out for R W Mackenzie, a friend of his parents. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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