Publication Account
Date 1987
Event ID 1016853
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016853
Scone Palace is one of the earliest of the asymmetrically planned Georgian houses in Scotland. This early neo-Gothic building is the work of William Atkinson, an English architect of considerable ability and pupil of James Wyatt Work started in 1803 and the designs were exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1808 and 1811. The building was completed in 1812. James Claudius Loudon of Edinburgh, author of various encyclopaedias on architecture, agriculture, horticulture, interior design, and landscape gardening, produced a manuscript proposal for the 100 acre park surrounding the house. Many of the ideas in this proposal were put into effect, including the demolition and re-location of the Burgh of Scone. Some features of the old burgh were retained in their original position, including the old market cross, the Scone gateway, chapel and graveyard. A replica market cross was erected at the replacement village of New Scone some 2km to the east.
The house, interiors and gardens are all of one period and represent the avant-garde of the early 19th century. The building is the seat of the Earl of MansfIeld but is open to the public on a regular basis. The family collections include rare porcelain, needlework, furniture, clocks, ivories, six generations of family photographs and the Vernis Martin collection. There is also a collection of veteran agricultural machinery to the east of the castle.
Scone was one of a group of houses erected in the region at the beginning of the 19th century. Rossie Priory (NO 285308),1810, was another of Atkinson's designs although this house is now much reduced by the demolition of the principal rooms. Sir Robert Smirke designed Kinfauns Castle (NO 150226), 1820-24, in the castellated style, even extending the romantic composition to include two 'ruined watchtower' follies on the crags above the main house. James Gillespie Graham was possibly the most successful designer of these houses in the region, his best house being Dunninald (NO 703542), 1823-24. The houses listed above are all in private ownership and occupied as family houses and are seldom open to the public. The exception is Kinfauns Castle which is occupied by a holiday co-operative.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).
