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Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1016422

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016422

There have been Brodies at Brodie for over 800 years; 25 lairds in all, although the present building dates only from 1567, the time of the 12th Laird, Alexander. The first structure was a standard Z-plan tower-house, a rectangular block with square projecting towers at two opposite corners.The south-western tower and the main block occupy the western half of the south front. Early in the next century a west wing was added, lying to the north of the south-west tower and hard against the main block. In the 19th century a two-bayed east wing was built, immediately to the east of the original tower.

The 16th-century tower-house was a compromise between comfort and modest security. The latter can be seen in the vaulted guard-chamber at the base of the south-western tower with its gun-loops and slit windows. The principal apartments, where comfort could be had, would have been in the first floor. The high hall, which occupied the whole of the main block, is now the Red Drawing Room, a ponderous conversion by William Burn in the 1820s, while the laird's private chamber, which was in the adjacent south-western tower, is now the remarkable Blue Sitting Room. The original vault survives here, covered in rather crude plasterwork of the 1630s.

The addition of the west wing in the early 17th century provided on its first floor a large room for the laird's use adjacent to the old laird's room. This room is now the Dining Room. The visitor may not immediately appreciate that the dusky brown maidens and vines that spill from the blue background of the ceiling are made of plaster; the graining was applied by the factor in the 1820s who felt that he was creating a room that would be 'perfectly unique'. It is difficult both to interpret and to date the lasterwork. The four groups of emblematic maidens in the corners may represent the elements earth, air, fire and water. There are a few late 17th-century parallels, however, which would place it in the lairdship of either of two intensely Presbyterian lairds. The 19th laird, Alexander (1697-1754), is altogether the more lively and likely candidate.

His wife, Mary Sleigh, was responsible for a major remodelling of the grounds with radiating avenues, a short canal and pond and a wilderness. Like many early improvers, she and her husband ran into financial difficulties; however, the essential elements of their work still survive in the west end of the present avenue and the pond.

The last phase of building at Brodie began in 1824 when William Brodie, the 22nd laird, commissioned an elaborate scheme from William Burn of which only the east wing was built. In 1846 the York architect James Wylson carried out various modifications, including the remodelling of the entrance hall with squat 'Romanesque revival' columns and the fitting out of the pleasing library.

The paintings at Brodie represent a particularly wide collection and include a large number of 20th-century artists collected by the 24th laird.

A fine Pictish stone, Rodney's Stone, stands beside the entrance drive. Found at the church of Dyke, it has a cross on one side and two fish monsters, a Pictish beast and a double disc and Z-rod on the other, all carved in relief. It also bears three ogham inscriptions, one of which (to the right of the cross) transliterates EDDARRNON; the name Ethernan is recorded in the Annals of Ulster referring to a Pict who died in AD 669.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).

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