Summary Record
Date 16 February 2012
Event ID 884701
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Summary Record
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/884701
The house as it stands today is much altered from its original grandeur, mostly through the ravages of fire, being the oft remodelled remains of the great courtyard palace built by the seventh Earl of Rothes between 1667 and 1672.
There are a number of notables associated with the ‘Palace of Rothess’ as Defoe called it in the 1720’s. The architect is said to be John Mylne (Jnr), though completed by his nephew Robert after John’s death in 1667 and with advice from Sir William Bruce, all supporters of the Stewart monarchy, as was the Earl. This support had been rewarded by a succession of important roles within the Restoration court; but by early 1667, after rather too much louche activity, the Earl was forcibly retired from all important offices ‘and abandoned himself to pleasure’; this pleasure included the building of an imposing country seat. The house should possibly be seen as a clear assertion of the power of the Stewarts and their supporters in what was a period of potential unrest in Presbyterian Scotland.
The earlier Leslie House was built around a central courtyard and of at least two or possibly three storeys, of which the first floor of the north wing was almost entirely a gallery, lined with full length portraits. The richness of the interior is commented on, but less is said of the late C17 exterior, some evidence of how it may have looked of this is seen in Adair’s map of 1684 (held by the Map Library, National Library of Scotland) with the house shown in elevation rather than plan.
What is clear is how extensive the grounds and designed landscape were by the latter part of the century. Roy’s Military Survey of c.1750 shows even more clearly the extent of the gardens with the late C17 terraces to the south of the house leading down to the water garden on the bank of the stream and the avenues extending to south and east. Roy doesn’t clearly show the walled garden to the north, but again there are extensive walks and enclosed areas.
William Adam’s illustration plans and elevations of the house of c.1730, published in ‘Vitruvius Scoticus’ (1812) show the courtyard house and gallery with the positions of the stairs in the main west wing of the house and the open loggia on the west front. After the disastrous fire of 1763, the 11th Earl demolished what was left of the N, S and E ranges (except the basement of the N range) and rebuilt the west wing in c.1765-7. The rebuilding also raised the level of the second floor, with later alterations in the mid C19 adding a balustrade and dormer windows to the roofline.
Alterations in the early C20 included the addition of a bay window on the south front, the alterations were once thought to have been carried out by Robert Lorimer, though more likely to have been by Gillespie and Scott (whose papers at St Andrews’ University including drawings for the window, strengthening the billiard room floor etc.) These later alterations coincided with the arrival of the house of Norman, 19th Earl of Rothes and his wife, Noelle (who found some fame as a heroine of the sinking of the Titanic). It was the 19th Earl who finally sold Leslie in 1919 to a Capt. Crundall, who then sold it on to Sir Robert Spencer-Nairn the same year.
The house was gifted by the Spencer-Nairn’s to the Church of Scotland after the Second World War for use as an Eventide home, necessitating substantial internal alterations.
More recently, the house had stood empty until purchased by Sundial Properties, who were early in the process of subdivision of the house into apartments, when a major fire broke out in the roof in February 2009.
RCAHMS (CAJS) 2012.
