Publication Account
Date 1987
Event ID 1016845
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016845
The Bay Horse Inn was famous in the 19th century as a centre for ship sales for the east coast of Scotland. It is not certain when this activity started or when the building became an inn but advertisement for the ship sales appeared in the Dundee Advertiser from its inception in the early years of the 19th century.
The property was purchased by the National Trust for Scotland as part of its Little Houses Scheme and they commenced alterations. Ceilings with traces of painted decoration were found after the roof had been removed. The ceilings were dismantled and a survey of the property was organised by RCAHMS in 1969.
The building comprises two separate parallel blocks on either side of a courtyard. The south block facing the shore is a two-storey, three-bay structure. Each of the ground-floor apartments had direct access to the courtyard and was also inter-connected.
Although the building has been altered internally and is not open to the public, a description of the interior may help in understanding the external expression. The east room on the ground floor contained a former kitchen fireplace. On the upper floor the end rooms had attics. The central room was open to the collars. This room was entered from a gallery at the top of the forestair. There was an exceptionally large fIreplace flanked by windows in the south wall. This was accommodated in a chimney corbelled from the face of the building.
The painted ceilings were found in the end apartments and were of slightly different dates. Boarded linings and ceilings were carried up into the roofspace of the central room. One of the ceilings had two sets of initials which helped identify this building as the house occupied by Patrick Sinclair, son of Henry, 5th Lord Sinclair, in 1585. At that time the house was described as 'new biggit'. The date over the doorway was 1583 confirming that the house had been recently built
The Pan Ha' area contains some fme 18th century houses, many restored as part of the NTS Little Houses Scheme. These are linked by 19th and 20th century buildings to create an attractive environment.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).
