Tonley House

Tonley House, 18th and 19th century. Also known as Kincraigie, Old Tonley survives as a precarious narrow rectangle in boulder rubble; chamfered lower jambs of doorway visible beside a pocket baronial mansion of two storeys in squared grey granite; main front five bays dominated by central, projecting half-round entrance tower corbelled to square and gabled with corbiesteps. Angle turret leads round to gabled west front with prominent stone dormer heads. 1829 additions, John Smith; 1890s, A Marshall Mackenzie rebuilding. Estate was sold in 1947 and the house went in the spate of country house destruction in the early 1950s. Mackenzie's baronial hall survives only in McConnochie's description: The ceiling (by Hay & Lyall, Aberdeen) is 'panelled, each panel being highly enriched with pendant centres; on the

middle panel are the full arms, with motto, of the family (the Moir Byres), while the family crests are placed in each of the four corner panels. All round there is a deep festoon frieze in high relief with centres about four feet apart, on which are emblazoned coats of arms of the various families connected with Moir Byres'.

Taken from "Aberdeenshire: Donside and Strathbogie - An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Ian Shepherd, 2006. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

NJ61SW 15.00 61114 13526

NJ61SW 15.01 NJ 6111 1349 walled garden

NJ61SW 15.02 NJ 6116 1363 Gardener's Cottage

NJ61SW 15.03 NJ 6110 1333 Old Icehouse

Remains of mansion. Air photographs: AAS/97/03/G6/12-14 and AAS/97/03/CT.

NMRS, MS/712/29.

(Location cited as NJ 612 135). Site of manor and remains of a mansion.

Old Tonley House, also known as Kincraigie, is now a narrow rectangular ruin of uncertain date, but probably of the 18th and 19th centuries. It is largely built of boulder rubble, the chamfered lower door-jambs being the only architectural feature remaining. It was roofless prior to 1908 but possibly occupies the site of an earlier house. The roofless remains of the later house (a pocket baronial mansion of two storeys) survive to gable height. The main front has five bays with a projecting half-round entrance-tower corbelled to square with crow-stepped gables; the angle turret leads round to the gabled W front with prominent stone dormer heads. It was subject to additions by John Smith in 1829 and partial rebuilding by A Marshall Mackenzie in the 1890's. The estate was sold in 1847 and the house became derelict in the 1950's; a railway carriage sits outside the house today.

A gardener's house and the walled garden remain, the walled garden being of about the 18th century and of irregular plan with a N wall of pinned course rubble with a wide segmental arch at the centre. No further information.

(Newspaper reference: Press and Journal 3 March 1829).

NMRS, MS/712/57.

Location amended to NJ 6112 1351: depicted as roofless on OS 1:2500 map, 1970.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 25 September 1999.