Building record MAB21953 - PITTRICHIE

Dovecot, measuring 4 m square, dating to the 19th Century.

Dovecot, measuring 4 m square, dating to the 19th Century. Gothic style, constructed of dark pinned granite with red voussoirs at the arches. Some of the brick-built nesting boxes have collapsed. A level 2 standing building survey was carried out over the dovecot in June 2012 by Cameron Archaeology in advance of the proposed conversion of the dovecot and nearby steading (NJ82NE0094). The survey describes the dovecot as follows: The dovecot at Pittrichie is in a field southeast of the Home Farm and is 4 m x 4 m in size externally. Inside each wall is 3 m long and the building is constructed of large dark grey granite blocks with roughly dressed quoins. It is two storeys high and has an arched door in the south face of the ground floor and arched window on the first floor above. These are constructed of red granite and white quartz blocks in contrast to the grey granite walls. The door frame retains hinges but no door is present. On the south face above the door and forming the sill of the upper window is a perching ledge (sometimes wrongly termed a rat-ledge). Under half of the original nesting boxes survive as there were originally at least seven nesting boxes high. They are constructed of stone slate shelves and brick risers consisting of three hand-made local bricks in each stack forming the sides of the nesting boxes. All gaps have been filled with mortar. The space has been maximised by forming corner boxes. The boxes are circa 25 cm wide and 30 cm high with the openings of the corner boxes being less. Many of the boxes have collapsed. The boxes are built on a stone shelf to raise them above the damp ground and the guano (of which there is a layer on the floor). This ledge and the deep thick foundations also helped to protect the building from rats. The dovecot has been dated to the early 19th century. The purpose of a dovecot was to provide an estate with fresh meat and eggs. They also provided large quantities of droppings for use either as manure or in the making of lime mortar and the feathers were used in pillows. The birds gave a white meat similar to chicken rather than the darker meat of wood pigeon. The birds lived in nesting boxes which lined the inside walls of the dovecot and could come and go freely.

Period Notes
Built c.1818-25. Listed 16/04/1971.

CAMERON ARCHAEOLOGY, 2012, PITTRICHIE HOME FARM - LEVEL 2 STANDING BUILDINGS SURVEY, L2 SBS (Bibliographic reference). SAB5329.

SDD, n.d., BLDS OF ARCH & HIST INTEREST, UDNY 21 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1827.

Record last edited

Oct 31 2022 2:10PM