Building record MAB30020 - CAIRNESS HOUSE

Mansion House and associated designed landscape.

Mansion House and associated designed landscape. A late 18th century French Neo-Classical house of the Boullee Ledoux School. Built by James Playfair for Charles Gordon 1791-7 with money from his Jamaican plantations to replace a house of 1782-3 designed by Robert Burn. Of outstanding merit inside and out. Main block 2-storey and basement 5-window centre with 3-storey advanced wings with pedimented ground floor tripartite windows. Tetra-style pedimented Roman-doric porch with steps and broken column pedestals (drawings for which were made by John Soane). Cast-iron columnar chimneys. Great 2-storey hemicycle of offices to rear with gables having proto-doric columns set in blind lunettes showing to main front. Remarkable pend arch in semi-circle of voussoirs diminishing in depth to crown, cupola over. There is a circular ice-house in the court aligned with a range of offices. Ground floor rooms are symmetrically planned, and very finely detailed throughout, including Egyptian-style billiard room behind entrance hall with decorative hieroglyphics, a library with a shallow-arched coffered ceiling reminiscent of Soane's work and a hall with Doric pilasters and a Greek frieze. Playfair's remodelling displays overt Masonic and Templar symbolism based upon the Temple of Solomon. Surrounded by a designed landscape, the original map of which hung in Cairness House in the early 1990s. At the south side of the lawn in front of the house is a Ha Ha. Cairness remained in Gordon hands until WWII when it passed to the Moir family. Gardens designed by Thomas White, a pupil of 'Capability' Brown', in 1791 but much of the land was reclaimed for agricultural use from the 1950s onwards following the felling of the woodland within the 400 acre estate. There is a walled garden to the south-east of the house (NK06SW0113).

Period Notes
Built 1791-7 to replace a house of 1782-3 designed by Robert Burn. Gate piers added in 1891.

Author unknown, , PRESS & JOURNAL, 09/04/2007 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1416.

Author unknown, , PRESS & JOURNAL, 13/07/00 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1416.

Author unknown, , PRESS & JOURNAL, 29/03/2007 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1416.

THE SCOTSMAN, 0000, THE SCOTSMAN, 01/06/90 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1819.

THE SCOTSMAN, 0000, THE SCOTSMAN, 08/03/02 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1819.

THE SCOTSMAN, 0000, THE SCOTSMAN, 13/07/2000 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1819.

THE SCOTSMAN, 0000, THE SCOTSMAN, 29/04/2000 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1819.

McWILLIAM, C, 1972, ARCH J, 206-7, 206-7 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1243.

STEWART TOD & PARTNERS, 1991, CAIRNESS HOUSE: REPORT ON THE FABRIC AND FEASIBILITY COST FOR THE LANDMARK TRUST (Bibliographic reference). SAB4803.

SOUNDCRAFT, 1996, CAIRNESS HOUSE FINAL REPORT - CONFIDENTIAL (Bibliographic reference). SAB1705.

Aug 1 1995 , AAS/GR/95/CT232-235, AAS/GR/95/CT232-235 (Ground Photograph). SAB32933.

Aug 8 1995 , AAS/95/07/CT12-14, AAS/95/07/CT12-14 (Air-oblique Photograph). SAB19655.

Aug 8 1995 , AAS/95/07/G18/6-11,13, AAS/95/07/G18/6-11,13 (Air-oblique Photograph). SAB16066.

Aug 8 1995 , AAS/95/07/G19/4,5, AAS/95/07/G19/4,5 (Air-oblique Photograph). SAB16068.

Jan 26 2006 , GR/06/CT5-6, GR/06/CT5-6 (Ground Photograph). SAB37069.

Jul 7 1993 , AAS/93/10/G22/9,10, AAS/93/10/G22/9,10 (Air-oblique Photograph). SAB15097.

Jul 10 2003 , AAS/03/2/CT2-4, AAS/03/2/CT2-4 (Air-oblique Photograph). SAB17995.

Jul 27 1989 , 1 image, 1 image (Ground Photograph). SAB36479.

SDD, n.d., BLDS OF ARCH & HIST INTEREST, LONMAY 9 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1827.

Author unknown, n.d., COUNTRY LIFE, AUGUST 1991, 79 (Bibliographic reference). SAB276.

Sep 1 1995 , AAS/GR/95/CT267-286, AAS/GR/95/CT267-286 (Ground Photograph). SAB32934.

Record last edited

Apr 3 2025 3:15PM