Building record MAB11778 - CAIRNFIELD HOUSE

Mansion house built in 1799-1804, commissioned by Adam Gordon of Cairnfield and built by Robert Burn, with later additions.

Mansion house built in 1799-1804, commissioned by Adam Gordon of Cairnfield and built by Robert Burn, with later additions. An earlier house was destroyed by fire in 1798, and the current property was re-sited slightly to the North. Until circa 1980, Cairnfield was the ancestral home of the Gordons of Cairnfield. The house is North facing, with 2-stories and a dormerless attic mansion over a raised basement, and with 3 wide bays. It has a pinned rubble front, with contrasting tooled ashlar dressings, and harled or harl pointed rubble elsewhere. There is a slightly advanced and pedimented centre bay in the North entrance front, with a doorway approached by a splayed flight of steps oversailing the raised basement. A wide corniced and pilastered ashlar doorpiece incorporates narrow side lights and a large square fanlight with decorative glazing, and double leaf panelled doors have a Keystoned Venetian window above. An advanced centre bay in the South (garden) front has a ground floor Venetian window and tripartite (blind centre light) above. An 1825 2-storey East service wing, built by William Robertson, is linked to the house by a curved corridor quadrant, with a convex North-East face that is harled, with a regular arcade of engaged Doric columns and a corniced blocking course. The refaced North gable of the wing is constructed of coursed pinned rubble, with harl pointed rubble elsewhere and tooled and polished ashlar dressings. There is a wide, segmental-headed recess in the ground floor of the North gable of the wing, facing the entrance front, with centre window between engaged Doric pilasters. A demi-octagonal stairwell projects in the centre of the West-facing 3-bay front. There is varied glazing, a centre coped ridge stack and a piended Banffshire slate roof. A large garage door is in the East elevation. This wing is similar to the 18th century mirrored wings at Rannas (NJ46SE0005), also in Rathven parish, flanking the court fronting a former mansion. It likely would have been desired to have a similar mirroring wing here, but the steep slope to the Burn of Cairnfield in the West makes this impossible. A small single-storey outbuilding is close to this wing, and has a bellcote and re-used lintel, with the faded inscription 'Gloria in …'.There is a single storey kitchen wing extension in the South-West re-entrant angle over the raised basement, with a balcony and steps leading to garden. It was built in circa 1930 by R. B. Pratt. There are 2-bay East and West gables, and extra-long West raised ground floor windows lighting the drawing room that are fronted by small cast-iron balconies. Between these windows, but overgrown with vegetation, is a reset 1666 datestone. There is a small oval oculus between the first floor windows, a decorated and dated 1802 rainwater head at the East gable, long first floor windows, two sunken attic windows in the piended roof at the East and West gables. Multi-pane glazing is used. There are a pair of long centre coped flues, and a piended platform slate roof. Inside, there is a D-ended entrance lobby with beaded panelled dado and doors, opening right to the drawing room and left to the dining room. A centre doorway leads to the stairhall, and there is a bucrania frieze and decorative centre plaster rose. The stairhall is narrow and bowed at each end, and a top-lit cantilevered staircase rises full-height, with delicate decorative cast-iron balusters and polished wooden handrails. The drawing room has beaded panelled dados, window shutters and doors, corniced overdoors with carved floral decoration, a white marble chimneypiece with cluster columns and a moulded plaster ceiling cornice. The dining room has panelling like the drawing room, and has decorative corniced overdoors with carved ferns and flowers and a moulded plaster ceiling cornice. No original chimneypiece survives. There is a small South-facing parlour, with a basket grate within a re-assembled marble chimneypiece and panelling as elsewhere. On the first floor, there are some D-ended rooms, beaded panelling and simple cornices. The attic has four D-ended rooms. Decorative cast-iron basket grates survive, and there are moulded dado rails. Rooms open into shaped closets formed between curved party walls and there are later built-in chests of drawers in window embrasures. Inside the 18th century service wing, the former ground floor kitchen has been gutted, becoming a garage and chauffeurs quarters in circa 1926. The first floor has been modernised as an independent flatted dwelling, reached by a curved staircase. Stands within a designed landscape (NJ46SW0133). Home Farm to the south of the house (NJ46SW0134).

Period Notes
Built in 1799-1804. East wing dated 1825. Kitchen wing added in circa 1930. The old house was destroyed by fire in 1798. Until circa 1980, Cairnfield was the ancestral home of the Gordons. It was designated on 22/02/1972, and its listing changed from a B to an A on 25/04/1989.

Author unknown, 1799, OLD STATISTICAL ACCOUNT, 253 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1845.

SOUTER, D, 1812, GEN REV OF AGRI OF COUNT BANFF, 85 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1872.

BOGDAN, NQ, 1991, Castles, Manors & Town House survey, 37 (Bibliographic reference). SAB2251.

Jul 12 2010 , AAS/10/3/DG1981-3, AAS/10/3/DG1981-3 (Air-oblique Photograph). SAB30767.

SDD, n.d., BLDS OF ARCH & HIST INTEREST, RATHVEN 5 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1827.

Author unknown, n.d., NSA, 255 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1269.

Record last edited

Jul 22 2022 11:49AM