Building record MAB6629 - PITTENSAIR HOUSE

House of James Ogilvie, built in 1735, and a steading.

House of James Ogilvie, built in 1735, and a steading. James Ogilvie was a master mason, and it can be assumed that he was the architect and builder of his own dwelling in which, in miniature, he includes details from the greater mansions on which he worked, creating a miniature version of the fashionable house of the time.

It is a north-facing, 2-storey, 3-bay house with later additions at the east gable and the south elevation. There is a harled rubble exterior and ashlar dressings. The centre door in the north front is masked by a later gabled wooden porch, which was removed between 2008-2012. The doorway has a moulded surround, as do all of the front windows, which have been widened in the ground- and first-floor outer bays. There is symmetrical rear fenestration, and a small ground floor window at each side of the centre door and in the centre of the first floor. They are all narrow, with plain chamfered jambs. In the west gable, there is a single ground floor, and long first floor. 8- and 12-pane glazing is used. There is also an oval oculus in the west gable that lights the loft, with 'James Ogilvie' carved above and 'Marjory Stewart' carved below. The end stacks have moulded cornices, with a narrow pulvinated stringcourse below the cornice, and a small ledge at inner face with a moulded underside. The detailing to the end stacks is unusual; the ledges probably assisting the cleaning of the chimneys, besides throwing rainwater away from the ridge. There are shaped skew putts that, at the northwest, are dated 1735, and flat skews continuously moulded on the underside and splayed at the base to follow the line of the bell cast roof, which is constructed from Banffshire slate and has a stone ridge.

Inside, the house has a small circular cantilevered staircase with a moulded underside, and a polished wood balustrade. The moulding on the underside of the staircase is similar to that at Gordonstoun House (MAB4960), remodelled in 1730, on which James Ogilvie may well have worked. The original moulded chimneypieces are in the west ground- and first-floor rooms. There are simple moulded ceiling cornices, and a 'stake' and ‘hris' (wattle, clay, and straw) party wall in the loft.

There is a later single-storey rubble extension at the rear, masking the rear centre entrance, and a single-storey, 3-bay cottage at the east gable, with moulded architraves to the centre door. Both have end stacks and corrugated iron roofs. To the southwest of the house there is a U-shaped, south-facing steading, although on the 1st edition OS map it is only partially open, and on the 2nd edition OS map it is shown as square. The buildings have pantile and corrugated-iron roofs, mostly piended, and a large pantile piended dormer to the front elevation. A well is also depicted to the immediate south of the house on the 1st edition OS map.

COLVIN, H, 1978, BIOG DICT OF BRIT ARCHITECTS, 600 (Bibliographic reference). SAB270.

MCKEAN, C, 1987, MORAY: AN ILLUSTRATED ARCHITECTURAL GUIDE, p.110 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1142.

Record last edited

Oct 2 2026 6:22PM