Standing Building Recording

Date February 2007 - November 2007

Event ID 557690

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/557690

NO 5201 0523 Repair of panelling lining the S side of the entrance hall in the SW tower at Kellie revealed a complex history of decorative schemes. These schemes were recorded from February to November 2007. In its present form the panelling appears to be early 17th-century, the result of the antiquarian attentions of Professor Lorimer, who modified an existing 18th century scheme of tall panels by the application of additional

cross-members. During repair it was discovered that the bluegreen painted 18th-century scheme was itself a re-ordering of a scheme of c1660-80. The latter was both false-grained to simulate expensive hardwood such as walnut, and tromped to suggest raised and fielded panels. Dutch in style, this scheme was possibly installed under the direct influence of Sir William Bruce of neighbouring Balcaskie.

General monitoring of re-pointing works to the W elevation and S side of the SW tower permitted wider appraisal of the building's history in those areas. It appears that at the core of the present structure there is a principal first floor hall with the same footprint as the barrel-vaulted cellar below. The hall may have been coeval with or secondary to the lower parts of the NW tower. There is evidence for an early N perimeter wall extending E from the NE corner of the hall. Raggles cut into the S side of the SW tower revealed the former

presence of an abutting range of 1 or 1½ stories extending S, a footing of which is also visible. This structure, likely to have formed part of a courtyard complex, was dismantled in the 18th century.

In the first decade of the 17th century the SW tower was added and the pre-existing structures raised - the hall was furnished with an upper story, the NW tower with two. In the second decade of the same century further additions were made above the former hall, with a new gable to the W detailed with diamondset

chimneys characteristic of this period (comparable to Winton, East Lothian). Subsequent modification in the 18th century resulted in the enlarging of numerous windows, at the same time as the reordering of many interiors. On the S side of the SW tower this process resulted in severe structural cracking. Further

modifications related to the Lorimer period of modifications in the late 19th century and later.

Archive deposited with the NTS SMR, RCAHMS.

Funder: The National Trust for Scotland.