Pitcairn House
Lairds House (17th Century)
Site Name Pitcairn House
Classification Lairds House (17th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Old House Of Pitcairn; Pitcairn House Policies; Glenrothes
Canmore ID 29947
Site Number NO20SE 1
NGR NO 27046 02646
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/29947
- Council Fife
- Parish Leslie (Kirkcaldy)
- Former Region Fife
- Former District Kirkcaldy
- Former County Fife
NO20SE 1.00 27046 02646
(NO 2704 0264) Old House of Pitcairn (NR)
OS 1:10000 map (1980)
NO20SE 1.01 Centred NO 27003 02637 Steading
NO20SE 1.02 NO 27031 02633 Farmhouse
NO20SE 1.03 NO 27133 02577 Farm cottage
For cairn at NO 2732 0266, see NO20SE 2.
Pitcairn House has been an oblong, 17th century house, measuring 32 1/2 by 54ft externally. The E gable, the only one that remains, indicates that there were at least three storeys; the lowest was probably vaulted. The masonry has been of boulder rubble with dressed quoins.
J Anderson 1899; RCAHMS 1933, visited 1927.
The remains of Pitcairn House measure 14.8 by 5.5m internally. The E gable stands 6.0m high, but elsewhere the walls are only 1.0m high.
Visited by OS (JP), 18 June 1974.
The ground plan of Pitcairn House was exposed by excavation in 1980, and is now displayed as a feature adjacent to a modern housing scheme. It was confirmed that this was a 17th century laird's house.
The ground floor was divided into three rooms; the E gable stands to a maximum height of 5.5m, indicating that it was probably a two-storeyed structure.
Following the excavation, all the walls were consolidated and the floor and make-up levels preserved by a covering of soil and turf to the level of the threshold of the N doorway.
(Reid gives full details of the excavation and finds, mainly pottery, of 17th century and later date. These, and the excavation archive, have been deposited in Kirkcaldy Museum.)
M L Reid 1980.
Scheduled as 'Pitcairn House... a mid 17th-century laird's house, surviving as a ruinous building... on a flat, grassed amenity area within the new town of Glenrothes...'
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 22 July 2011.
Field Visit (9 June 1927)
Pitcairn House.
This has been an oblong house of the 17th century, measuring 32 ½ feet by 54 feet externally. The east gable, which is the only one that remains, indicates that there were at least three storeys in the height; the lowest was probably vaulted. The masonry has been of boulder rubble with dressed quoins.
HISTORICAL NOTE. There were Pitcairns of that ilk as early at lea.st as the 15th century. In 1426 the King granted to Henry de Pitcairn the lands of the same which his father had resigned (1); and in 1495 a deed involving Henry Pitcairn of that ilk was completed "at the principal messuage of Pitcarne" (2). In 1609 Henry Pitcairn of that ilk is a witness to a charter (3).
RCAHMS 1933, visited 9 June 1927.
(1) Reg. Mag. Sig., s.a., No. 80. (2) LaingCharters, No. 223. (3) Ibid., No. 1543.
