Building record MAB6254 - THE COTTAGE, 31 HIGH STREET, ARCHIESTOWN

House built in 1790-3.

House built in 1790-3. It was built on site of 3 feus, and granted by Sir Archibald Grant of Monimusk to Robert Cruikshank, 'Gardener......lately returned from London'. Between 1841 and circa 1860, it was also the home of the parents of Donald Alexander Smith, Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal of Canadian Pacific Railway fame. It is an unusual miniature version of a formal 18th century Laird's house. There is an attractive use of chequered local granite, which is hard and intractable for tooling. It had been due for demolition, but it was instead restored, with restoration work beginning in 1973. It is a symmetrical single storey, wide 3-bay cottage, with small square, single storey, single bay advanced pavilion wings forming a South facing shallow U-plan. It is constructed from mixed squared and tooled pink and yellow local granite, with a harl pointed granite rubble rear. Later lean-to rubble additions project from the East and West gables, infilling re-entrant angles formed by pavilions. There is a small fanlight at the centre door, which has double-leaf panelled doors and flanking windows. There are single windows in front of each pavilion, and the entrances have glazed upper lights in the inner faces. 12-pane glazing is used, with modern glazing to the centre rear and modern a rear window in the East lean-to. There are coped end wallhead stacks to the centre block and pavilions and piended local slate roofs. Restoration work from the 1970s and early 1980s has retained them main elements of the internal lay-out. There are new chimneypieces and a restored corniced ceiling in the main public room incorporating original scroll brackets. The height of ceilings varies from room to room. Each is half the length of the floor diagonal. There is a pair of tall square tooled granite gatepiers, with plain square caps. There is a low coped flanking front retaining wall, with spearhead railings that are stiffened at intervals with thicker bars capped with urn finials, and rubble rear and side walls. A Levallois-like core (flint tool) was found in the garden and given to Elgin Museum in 2000.

Period Notes
Built in 1790-3, and restored during the 1970s and 80s. It was designated on 26/01/1971.

Author unknown, n.d., THE NORTHERN SCOT, 01/08/86 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1270.

Record last edited

Mar 5 2021 12:34PM