Field Visit
Date 20 July 1925
Event ID 1099097
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1099097
Pitcairlie House.
The estate of Pitcairlie lies a the western extremity of the county, on the Perthshire border, about 2 miles south of Newburgh. The mansion (SC 1108603), which stands on an eminence, is a composite structure, greatly altered in the 18th century and again about 1800, but still retaining a late 16th-century basis, the extent and arrangement of which cannot now be accurately determined. All that can be said is that the western part and a rectangular tower projecting from the southern angle are definitely of the earliest period. The house is three storeys in height, rubble-built and harled, except at the front, which has been refaced. The tower is surmounted by an ashlar parapet with rounds, and has a turret-stair corbelled out at second-floor level within the western re-entrant angle. In its lower part, on the south-west face, are three recesses, 22 inches high, 21 ½ inches broad, and 22 inches deep, set 5 feet 3 inches from the ground; their purpose is unknown. The present entrance faces northeast and opens into a modernised hall, which originally formed three apartments; beyond is a vaulted passage, from which are entered two vaulted chambers, the smaller opening into the lower part of the tower. The stair, which rises at the western end of the hall, is modern, and there is no trace of the original access to the upper floors. On the first floor, the drawing room, a modernised room, occupies the front of the house, and on the western side of the passage are three chambers, the two northern of which were originally one room. The southern chamber communicates with a chamber in the tower, which is panelled in Memel pine of theI8th century, and there are traces of a similar finish in the other rooms. On the second storey the tower-room and the smoking-room, which is above the drawing-room, are panelled; the other rooms have been modernised, but one contains a simply moulded stone fireplace, which is original.
HISTORICAL NOTE. - Pitcairlie was within the barony of Balmbreich [NO22SE 8], and so belonged to the family of Leslie, Earl of Rothes. The fourth earl bestowed Pitcairlie on his second son Patrick, who became Lord Lindores. Patrick Leslie, the second Lord Lindores, died at "Pitcartey " in 1649 (1). He had borrowed so heavily on the estate that after his death it passed to a creditor.
RCAHMS 1933, visited 20 July 1925.
(1) Balfour, Annales of Scotland, iii, p. 423.vi
