Standing Building Recording

Date February 2007

Event ID 556147

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/556147

NO 5736 4879 We undertook outline analytical assessment of this complex building, part 16th-century fortified house, part 18th-century mansion, with later extensions, during February 2007. The eastern part of the building retains defensive features including gun ports and bartizans. The latter are notable for their unusual detailing, with false parapet and conical stone roofs surmounted by coronets. An ex situ date-stone of AD 1568 bearing the arms of James VI and the motto 'God Save The King', serves to strengthen the suggestion that the architecture of the building deliberately associates itself with both the new king and earlier Royal Stewart palace architecture (Holyrood, Falkland, Stirling) perhaps in emphatic reaction to the preceding Marian period. The Gardynes owed their rise to prominence as royal officials within the court of James VI.

Funder: Private client.

Thomas Addyman, 2007.