Publication Account
Date 1996
Event ID 1018247
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018247
This two-storeyed town-house stands on an island site in the central square of the burgh. Constructed of coursed pink granite, it is of L-plan, having an original S block measuring 16.7m by 6.8m which is said to have been begun in 1737 and completed ten years later. A square NW wing, of the same width and aligned with the original Wend-wall, was added in the late 18th or early 19th century. Although the designer of the building is not known, its unpretentious form suggests that he was a local mason.
The principal (S) front is offive bays, with ground-floor doorways in the end- and centre bays. A semicircular double forestair encases the central doorway and rises to the main first-floor entrance. This forestair, which obstructs a blocked doorway in the bay W of the central one, probably replaced a previous stair of less elaborate form. The hipped roof of the main block carries a square ogee-roofed clock-tower. The clock-face has a circular moulded surround, while the other faces of the tower have small windows.
The central doorway at ground-floor level leads to a barrel vaulted pend-like cell running the full depth of the main block. The whole of the ground floor and the W part of the upper floor have been extensively altered for domestic or commercial use, and preserve few early features. At first-floor level the central area of the vestibule has round-headed arches supporting the clock-tower, those to Wand E enclosing square-headed doorways. The W doorway has been blocked, allowing the W portion of the building to be self-contained. The E room, used as the council-chamber, has architraves and doors of mid-19th-century character.
The clock-machinery bears inscriptions recording that it was made by Hugh Gordon, Aberdeen, and was donated by the 10th and last Earl Marischal in 1774. The bell, which was used for both church and burgh purposes, measures 0.58m in diameter and is inscribed: FVNDOR SVMPTIBVS ET IN VSVM ECCLESIAE PAROCHIALIS DE KINTOR /MEMORES ESTOTE SUPREMI IVDICII ALBERTUS GELY FECIT AN D MDCCII ('I am cast at the expense of and for the use of the parish church of Kintore. Remember the Last Judgement. Albert Gely made me in the year 1702').
Information from ‘Tolbooths and Town-Houses: Civic Architecture in Scotland to 1833’ (1996).
