Tertowie House

Tertowie House, 1867, James Matthews. May incorporate parts of earlier house. To Matthews' slightly lugubrious baronial two-storey-and-attic block, William Kelly added a lively single-storey-and-basement crowstepped wing with strong dormers and a confident round angle-tower in 1905. The central unifying tower projected for the east front was,

unfortunately, never built. Nuclear bunker created in late 1980s.

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

NJ81SW 56 82191 10176

For Tertowie House, West Lodge (NJ 8192 0971), see NJ80NW 111.

For Tertowie House, nuclear bunker, see NJ81SW 56.01.

For Tertowie House stables, see NJ81SW 56.02.

For the walled garden, see NJ81SW 56.03.

Tertowie House (College) [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1992.

Site of manor/house; house incorporates part of an earlier house; two-storey and attic, harled with margins; simply detailed, asymmetrical; single-storey basement and stone-dormered attic wing with round angle-tower (Kelly) with two-storey link to original house at NE; modern additions to W.

Architects: James Mathews (1867) and Dr William Kelly (1905).

Now used as accommodation for students of Aberdeen College, School of Rural Studies. Part of designed landscape still exists.

[Magazine reference cited].

NMRS, MS/712/79.

NMRS REFERENCE:

Owner: City of Aberdeen (since 1943) (Source - Aberdeenshire 3rd Statistical Account, pub.1960)

Tall 2-storey and attic, crowstepped tower house with conical-roofed corbelled bartizan and some vaulted interior passages; low link section over paired segmental-arched cart entrance adjoining single storey, raised basement and attic wing. Harled with granite dressings and quoin strips. Ashlar base course (on rubble to S), bull-faced to raised basement at NE; eaves course. Segmental-arched doorway. Stone-pedimented dormerheads with fleur-de-lis and thistle finials; stone transoms and mullions. Largely small-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case windows; stair window with heraldic detail to top lights and coloured margins; casement windows to link. Grey slates. Coped harled stacks with some cans. Ashlar-coped skews with skewputts.

Tertowie is of special interest on historical grounds, for its estate, its evolution and for the interest and quality of much of the interior. The house lies in an A-Group with Walled Garden, Stable Courtyard and Nuclear Bunker. The small estate of Tertowie with its fine early house reworked by Aberdeen architect James Matthew has, exceptionally, remained as a single entity through a number of changes of ownership which culminated in conversion to residential and agricultural premises for Aberdeen University in the twentieth century. Matthews worked on a number of important Aberdeen buildings including the Grammar School (1861), St Machar´s Cathedral (1867) and Advocates Hall (1869). The small group at Tertowie is set in a fine designed landscape and which includes terraced formal garden with ornamental bridge immediately South of the house, walled garden to the East and stable courtyard to the Northeast. The addition of a nuclear bunker (to the West) in the 1960s further contributes to the overall interest of the property. It was the home of the King family, several of whom enjoyed distinguished military careers, and is connected with Archbishop William King of Dublin. Their ancestors came from Barra Castle, having held that property since the 13th Century. The family coat of arms incorporates a symbol which appears to be a musical note and can be seen on the principal elevation, in the coloured glass stair window and standing alone on a small crowstepped gablehead to the N elevation. Another symbol which appears on both dormer windowheads and coloured glass coat of arms resembles an axehead or cojoined leg or symbol somewhat like that of the Isle of Man. By 1845 Tartowie, presumably an alternative spelling, was in the ownership or rental of Dr Ewing, with a 'valued rent´ of 'L84, 13s 4d´. Another family name connected with Tartowie, Aberdeen is that of 'Littlejohn´. John Bain Littlejohn, son of John Bain Littlejohn and Jane Robinson, was born here on 29.11.1859. (Historic Scotland)