Hall of Clestrain
Date 1 November 1990
Event ID 897524
Category Management
Type Site Management
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/897524
Gabled Georgian laird's house of one and a half storeys and 3x3 bays in harl and ashlar with dressed facework. The house sits on a basement which projects slightly to form a plinth, and the attic is articulated by a bandcourse. The low moulded doorway is approached by a stair, and sits under a lugged architrave and corniced rectangular fanlight. The steeply-pitched roof is in modern asbestos sheeting and sits above a cavetto cornice. The side elevation features rectangular windows at basement and ground floor level, with a single window above in the gable surmounted by chimney stacks. It has been suggested that the slightly advanced central bay may have originally been topped by a shallow pediment. A single storey outbuilding sits to the rear.
John Rae (1813-1893) was born in the Hall. He was a famous Orcadian explorer employed by the Hudson Bay Trading Company. He covered hundreds of miles of previously uncharted territory, such as the 600 miles of the Arctic coast west from the Fury and Hecla Straits to the Boothia Isthmus.
