Earlshall. View from south east.

Description Earlshall. View from south east.

Date 1889

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

Catalogue Number SC 747700

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of F 1996

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 in 1889 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 four-storeyed main block lying in an east-west direction, and a massive, oval-shaped tower projecting from its north-east corner (right). The main block, which faces south over 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. Earlshall had been empty for more than 70 years before Lorimer undertook its restoration. The garden (foreground) was under grass, and Lorimer was given a free hand in its reconstruction. Here, in place of the stooks of straw seen here set on end to dry, he created a lawn set with yew trees clipped to look like chessmen, very much in the style of the topiary first introduced from Holland in the 15th century. The yews were found in an abandoned garden in Edinburgh, and the gardener was offered £5 for every one which took in its new setting at Earlshall. No failures were recorded. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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