Architecture Notes
Event ID 761984
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Architecture Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/761984
The character of this unusual Arts and Crafts style house came about through close collaboration between client, architect and craftsman. In 1905, Lord Carmichael - enthusiastic traveller and Governor of Bengal - commissioned renowned architect Robert Lorimer to design a hillside mansion near the Borders village of Skirling. When the scheme proved to be too costly, Lorimer designed a smaller house for the Lord in the English Domestic style. This was also abandoned for reasons unknown, but may have been the result of a general waning of interest in the style by this time. The main elevations of this second scheme have characteristically staggered eaves to the front, and long uninterrupted eaves to the rear. RCAHMS holds a number of Lorimer drawings for both of these unexecuted projects.
Lord Carmichael then chose Ramsay Traquair, a colleague of Lorimer and son of renowned Scottish artist Phoebe Traquair, as his architect. Traquair remodelled a group of existing eighteenth century farm buildings beside the village green to create the house that exists today. Its harled walls and slate roof are typically Scottish, while its large expanses of astragalled windows and weather-boarded upper storey suggest the influence of the English south coast. The style also hints at ideas Traquair would later develop following his emigration to Canada, where he became a well-established architect and university professor. The drawing room was designed to incorporate an impressive Florentine ceiling with individually carved and painted roses dating from 1590, and a built in wall cabinet with delicate inlay work by Scarselli of Florence.
According to anecdotal evidence, Lord Carmichael was much inspired by the outsized ironwork lilies and tulips adorning the seventeenth century gates at nearby Traquair House. Consequently, Ramsay Traquair (connected to Traquair House in name only) employed Thomas Hadden, a working blacksmith closely affiliated with Lorimer, to provide the wrought iron work for Skirling House. Interestingly, Hadden's iron gates for nearby Skirling churchyard also incorporated elongated replicas of the Traquair House tulips. With both Traquair and Hadden working in his house, Lord Carmichael's interest developed into something of an obsession, resulting in an abundance of ironwork throughout the house and garden. Inside, each door and window latch, lock and handle is individually designed, often with an animal theme. Outside, Traquair House style lilies and tulips sprout up in the garden and pig, rabbit and dog-shaped boot scrapers stand beside the doors. There is an imaginative weathervane with the devil looming over the world and a heavy lantern with a twisting lizard hangs near the entrance. Lord Carmichael's passion for travel is reflected in decorative elephant, panther and crocodile motifs on walls and railings. The inspiration for all the dragons and little men with pointy hats is less clear.
As mentioned before, Hadden's name was associated principally with the work of Lorimer. Their collaboration, spanning more than thirty years, sought to revitalise traditional Scottish ironwork styles, producing the flowing shapes that Lorimer suggested and Hadden experimented with and refined. Examples of their most elaborate output include the highly ornate screen of the Thistle Chapel in the High Kirk on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, and the steel casket for the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle. These prestigious commissions are testament to Hadden's mastery of his craft and provide an interesting contrast to the light-hearted, idiosyncratic work seen at Skirling House.
RCAHMS holds over 100 colour and black and white photographs of the interior and exterior of Skirling House as well as various material relating to the ironwork produced by Hadden in association with Robert Lorimer.
Information from RCAHMS Architecture Catalogue Project, 2005.
