Building record MAB20870 - BLAIRS COLLEGE

Blairs College, parsonage and Roman Catholic College.

Blairs College, parsonage and Roman Catholic College. The estate of Blairs belonged originally to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, who established a parsonage at Blairs where a priest resided. The lands passed from the hands of the knights in the early 16th Century. A Roman Catholic seminary was subsequently created on the site. Originally a 3-storey mansion house, Menzies House is a partially surviving later 18th Century mansion which was altered and extended by John Gall, architect, Aberdeen, under the supervision of John Menzies and Rev Gordon from 1827 when it was converted for use by the seminary. It was subsequently partially demolished. Extended to the south in 1827, with Menzies' apartments and old chapel, and linked at the north to later 1854 block. St Mary's Old Chapel dates to the early 19th Century, built in the neo-classical style but possibly with an earlier core. It was substantially remodelled after 1827 by John Gall, architect, Aberdeen, under the supervision of Rev Gordon and John Menzies. The chapel is linked at the south to two bays of a 3-storey domestic range originally built as John Menzies' private apartments, which communicates both with the chapel to the south, and with the 3-storey old mansion house to the north, and overlooks the walled garden (NJ80SE0144). Work on St Mary's College New College was begun in 1898-1902, by Ellis and Wilson, and took the form of a U-plan range to which additions were made 1906 and subsequently. It is mainly three storeys with basement, constructed of granite ashlar masonry with moulded string courses and a first floor cill band. The main, north, elevation has an imposing crown-steepled entrance tower projecting off-centre. There is an entrance porch at ground floor level with an arched and domed carved keystone and shields over main arch. The top stage has an open arched belfry with domed piers supporting the crown steeple and an open cupola with elaborate and distinctive copper finial. The New Chapel was designed by Robert Curran, of Warrington, with the foundation stone laid in 1899. C. J. Menart was responsible for the elaborate interior created in 1910-11. It is a transitional Gothic hall church with 3-stage buttresses tower, slender masonry spire at the northeast angle, and apse at the west (liturgical east). It features grey Rubislaw granite with pink sandstone tracery. Entrance is through the base of the tower at the northeast, with canopied niche above, 2-light belfry stage, crenellated parapet and angle finials. The spire has lucarne windows (upper set diminutive) and a delicate iron weather-vane. Polychrome banded slate roof (blue-grey and purple slates, red ridge tiles). There is a dovecot, which probably dates to late 18th Century, on the southerly range of ancillary buildings to St Mary's College. It is square, built of ashlar masonry, with a pyramidal slate roof terminating in turret entry, store beneath. The dovecot was recorded through laser scanning in 2009 by a team from the Scott Sutherland School (led by N. Brown, R. Laing and J. Scott). A historic landscape survey of the Blairs estate and standing building of the college, old college, steading and outlying buildings, gardens and related structures was undertaken in 2012 by MAS prior to the redevelopment of the buildings and the estate. To the southwest of the college buildings a new grid pattern of rectilinear enclosures was superimposed on an earlier field system in the late 18th century. This regular layout of the Home Farm contrasts to the more irregular pattern of the outlying fields and crofts. A trial trenching evaluation (43 trenches) across much of the area of these regular fields was carried out by MAS in 2013 (phase 2 of an evaluation that also included an area north of the South Deeside Road - NJ80SE0126) prior to proposed housing development. The area has been intensively cultivated from at least the 18th century and traces of rig and furrow associated with crofts on the estate were recorded in two fields (9 and 10), on the alignment of the pre-improvement fields shown on a later 18th century estate map. No other archaeological features were recorded. The college closed in 1986. The college housed the Blairs Museum collection of paintings, church textiles, sacred silver and Jacobite memorabilia belonging to the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. A roll of honour for the 340 men of the Raleigh Cycle Factory (Nottingham) was discovered used as a backing for a painting in the museum: it lists all Raleigh employees enlisting between 4 August 1914 and 1 May 1915.

Period Notes
Menzies House 18thC, extended to the south 1827. Old Chapel early 19thC, remodelled 1827. New College 1898-1902, addition to NW of old complex in 1906. New Chapel 1899, interior panels of coloured marble 1910-11 by C J Menart. New College Listed 22/12/1992.

Author unknown, , PRESS & JOURNAL, 31/07/2007 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1416.

BABTIE GROUP, 2004, ABERDEEN WESTERN PERIPHERAL ROUTE: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DESK-BASED STUDY & WALKOVER SURVEY. VOL 1: TEXT, VOL 2 GAZETTEER, Site 39a-d, f, g (Bibliographic reference). SAB3745.

MURRAY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SERVICES, 2012, BLAIRS ABERDEENSHIRE. PART 1: HISTORIC LANDSCAPE SURVEY, MAS 2012-08 pt 1 (Bibliographic reference). SAB4999.

MURRAY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SERVICES, 2012, BLAIRS ABERDEENSHIRE. PART 2: STANDING BUILDING SURVEY OF THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS, GARDENS AND RECREATION GROUNDS, MAS 2012-08 pt 2 (Bibliographic reference). SAB5000.

MURRAY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SERVICES, 2012, BLAIRS ABERDEENSHIRE. PART 3: STANDING BUILDING SURVEY OF THE STEADING, MAS 2012-08 pt 3 (Bibliographic reference). SAB5001.

MURRAY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SERVICES, 2013, BLAIRS, ABERDEENSHIRE: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION, Eval report (Bibliographic reference). SAB5082.

ARCHAEOLOGY SCOTLAND, 2013, DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION IN SCOTLAND, NEW SERIES, VOLUME 13, 2012, p.24 (Bibliographic reference). SAB5487.

Apr 23 2016 , AAS-GR-16-04-011, 012, AAS-GR-16-04-011, 012 (Ground Photograph). SAB32320.

Aug 22 1996 , AAS/GR/96/CT157, AAS/GR/96/CT157 (Ground Photograph). SAB32983.

Jul 4 1996 , AAS/96/07/CT10,27-31, AAS/96/07/CT10,27-31 (Air-oblique Photograph). SAB16418.

Jul 10 1996 , AAS/GR/96/CT139, AAS/GR/96/CT139 (Ground Photograph). SAB32980.

SDD, n.d., BLDS OF ARCH & HIST INTEREST, MARYCULTER 18 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1827.

Author unknown, n.d., NSA, VOL XI, 194 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1269.

Record last edited

Aug 18 2025 9:03AM