NTS Documentary Reference Event

Date February 2013

Event ID 934472

Category Documentary Reference

Type Reference

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/934472

A two-storey house with two main frontages with harled walls and dressed stone rusticated quoins, window margins and other details under slated roofs. The main front faces south overlooking the terraced gardens and parkland and is symmetrically arranged with a central 5-bay set-back, incorporating tall French windows, between wings with shallow bay windows. The symmetrical arrangement belies the internal disposition of rooms, with the off-centre middle chimney the only discordant element at roof level. The west front comprises a 4-bay section at the south and a lower square block to the north (billiard room) with a single storey loggia with three round-ached openings positioned centrally facing onto the integrally-designed forecourt.

The house with its approaches and terraces was built to the designs of Robert Lorimer from 1905-07 and incorporates elements of a classical mansion of 1696 (Wemyss Hall) which previously occupied the site footprint and which has been attributed to William Bruce. Lorimer retained the three-storey Victorian rear wings that had served as servants quarters and left “the west wings mid-19th century gableted dormerheads alone, adding piended bell cast-roofed dormers to the east, and covering the court between with a glass roof.”

Various external details of the building relieve the restrained French style of the Lorimer elevations and reinforce the strong relationship between the house and garden terraces: the loggia itself, a balcony at the South-west bedroom above a ground floor bay window both overlooking the Sunk Garden, a doocot high up on the east face of the west bay, and a statue of Flora, sundial and inscription in the centre of the south facade, aligned with the axial terrace steps. Intimate garden spaces (Billiard Room courtyard, Slip Garden) tucked in beside the house and an ornamental well continue the links between building and landscape.

The sun-dial on the the south elevation is inscribed with:

LAT•56°18’ LONG•12MINW •

HORAS • NON • NUMERO •

NISI • SERENAS •

Information from NTS