Milton Of Whitehouse

NJ 41670 04110 A building survey was undertaken on 13 February 2015 of a derelict farmhouse prior to its demolition. Superficially, Milton of Whitehouse would appear to be a fairly typical, albeit well built, 1.5 storey farmhouse, with a date stone that places its construction in 1841, and with two abutting single-storey bothies on the W gable. However, examination of the structural details of each section shows a more complex development. The most significant feature is the well-dressed chamfered stonework of some windows and doors in the abutting single-storey buildings. These chamfered stones are superior in workmanship to any of the later stonework – for example around the openings in the mid- 19th-century farmhouse. In isolation they could be interpreted as all having been salvaged from a higher status building nearby. However, in association with a section of wall that is c800mm thick instead of the 500–600mm thickness used elsewhere, it appears that a small part of an earlier higher status building has been reused. This is of particular interest

as the Aboyne Muniments include documents dated 1698 and 1795 which refer to a two-storey manor house named Milton of Whitehouse, which was already dilapidated in 1698 and which could therefore have been built in the early 17th century or before. It can reasonably be argued that the early parts of the structure noted above are a remnant of the earlier manor.

Archive: Aberdeenshire SMR

Funder: Findrack (Investment) Ltd

Hilary and Charlie Murray – Murray Archaeological Services Ltd

(Source: DES, Volume 16)