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Fairnington House

Country House (17th Century)

Site Name Fairnington House

Classification Country House (17th Century)

Canmore ID 56990

Site Number NT62NW 3

NGR NT 64613 28059

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/56990

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Scottish Borders, The
  • Parish Roxburgh
  • Former Region Borders
  • Former District Roxburgh
  • Former County Roxburghshire

Archaeology Notes

NT62NW 3 64613 28059.

(NT 64612805) Fairnington House (NAT).

OS 6"map, Roxburghshire, (1924).

Fairnington House. This large mansion, standing in policies about three and a half miles SW of Roxburgh, dates mainly from the last decade of the 17th century although its wing incorporates the lowest floor of a 16th-century structure - probably the "bastell house" burnt by the garrison of Wark in 1544, (R B Armstrong 1883). As it now stands the house has a large oblong main block of three storeys and a garret, running NE and SW, with a return wing of equal height projecting to the SE in alignement with the NE gable. From either end of the main block two outbuildings, each consisting of a single storey and the SW one being comparatively modern, extend to the NW in alignement with the gables; while a modern addition having a porch on its NE side stands in between.

The masonry throughout is harled rubble. The original lights in the lower part of the wing are mere slits built without dressings, and form a contrast with two horizontal windows, facing NE one with a chamfered margin, both of which probably represent later enlargements. The other windows of both wing and main block are large and have backset, chamfered margins. Two of them have been enlarged as doorways. The quoins of the SW gable and the crow-steps upon all the gables are backset. The panelled chimney-stacks have been rebuilt, but in their original form. The slated roof seems also to have been renewed.

The late-Renaissance entrance, situated in the main block next the wing, has a coving flanked by flat pilasters and surmounted by a moulded cornice and raking pediment. It opens into a lobby extending to the back wall and containing the lowest flight of the stair which is geometric in type and has evidently been rebuilt. From the SW side of the lobby a short passage runs along the main SE wall, giving access to two rooms on its NW side and a third one at its SW end, all of which have been modernised. The partition on the NE side of the lobby, which separates the main block from the wing, is a heavy wall containing a built up window, sufficient proof that the lowest part of the wing is older than the rest of the fabric. At this level the wing originally contained a single vaulted compartment, but it is now divided into four storehouses and a communicating passage, the NW end of the last opening as a back door. The NE outbuilding, which for a length of some 19ft is contemporary with the main block although its outer end is more recent, has been modernised internally as kitchen offices.

The accommodation on the first floor is shown on RCAHMS 1956, fig.516. The wing is divided by a transverse partition partition into two rooms, both entirely modernised but for their bolection-moulded fireplaces of stone; it is perhaps worth mentioning that the enriched plaster ceiling of the SE room is modern. On the SW side of the staircase a short passage gives access to a bedroom on its NW side, modernised but for its fireplace, and at its farther end to the drawing-room, which has been entirely remodelled. From this floor to the garret rises a Renaissance stair (see fig. 62), identical in detail with one at Lessudden (RCAHMS 1956, no.916) but of pine instead of oak. On the second floor, which has been modernised, the arrangement of rooms is the same as on the first.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 11 August 1933.

A one-storey entrance block has been built in the re-entrant angle of Fairnington House, and the original late Renaissance entrance has been altered and widened to become a mere internal opening between the new entrance block and the main building.

Visited by OS(WDJ) 27 November 1963.

Activities

Sbc Note

Visibility: This is an upstanding building.

Information from Scottish Borders Council.

References

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