Archaeology Notes

Event ID 679693

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/679693

NN91NE 17 99488 18806

For present Gask House (NN 9951 1889), see NN91NE 41.00.

The first mention of any dwelling house at Gask is in the record of a visit the English King (Edward I) and Queen paid there in 1304, but it is after the final purchase of Gask of Laurence Oliphant in 1625, that the Old House is seen inhabited; part of the building is of so much earlier date that it must have been a habitation of generations before. The ruins of the Old House, pulled down c.1800 by Laurence Oliphant, the 8th. Laird, are still to be seen. Gask House was visited by Prince Charles in 1745. The present house was begun in 1801 (Hunter 1897) (Possibly the 'real Gascon Hall' (New Statistical Account {NSA} 1845) 1 1/2 miles NE of Gascon Hall - NN91NE 14)

NSA 1845; T Hunter 1897; E M Graham 1910.

NN 9950 1880. The Old House of Gask was partially restored, between 1939-45, by the father of the present owner, the restoration being based on an old print in the possession of the family. The house appears to have been L-shaped and built on a courtyard plan. The west side is completely restored, the remaining sides only partially.

In the north wall of the courtyard is an archway surmounted by a belfry bearing the date 1639, and the dates 1641 and 1662 appear above windows on the south side.

Visited by OS (W D J) 18 August 1967.