Inverernan, Forbes Lodge

NJ31SW 10.06 3286 1049

The remains of Forbes Lodge now lie within a coniferous plantation. It is approached by a rough, muddy trackway along the remains of an old driveway, the W side of which is still lined with beeches and a single chestnut. Although the NW gable of the lodge stands to the height of 7.5m at the chimney stack, the walls of the remainder of the building are reduced to little more than footings. Overall, it measures 12.8m from NW to SE by 6.5m transversely, and the largely grass- and moss-covered dressed stone walls are 0.6m in thickness. The gable contains a central fireplace at ground level, although the original dressed surround has been removed. However, another fireplace offset to the NE at the first-floor level retains its dressed stonework, which displays both chamfered facets to the uprights and a slight outward splay to the lintel.

At ground-floor level there is also a small, rectangular, inward-splaying window offset to the SW side of the gable; while a second comparable window, offset a little to the NE of the one at ground level, evidently lit the attic or first-floor space. Short, stumpy lengths of the NE and SW walls reaching almost to their full height, project from the surviving gable, but both are no more than about 2.5m in length and terminate at the edge of what appear to be the dressed masonry jambs of tall windows set directly one above another. This suggests that the design of both the front and rear elevations may have been symmetrical. A wing, which is square on plan, has been added to the SE end of the rear (SW side) of the building, but it is also reduced to little more than its foundations. The wing measures 6.3m across over grass- and moss-grown stone walls 0.6m in thickness and up to 1.2m in height. The entrance, 0.75m wide, is situated in the SE wall of the wing, adjacent to the wall of the lodge, and provides access to a cellar below. The interior of this cellar was not recorded.

The plan of the building conforms closely to that depicted upon both the 1st and 2nd editions of the OS 6-inch map (Aberdeenshire, 1869 and 1902, sheet lxix), but no trace of the garden depicted to the NW of the property can now be seen, the whole area having been over-planted with conifers.

Visited by RCAHMS (ATW), 10 November 1999.