Building record MAB8577 - KININVIE HOUSE

Kininvie House.

Kininvie House was the seat of the Leslie's of Kinnivie between 1523 -1943. The lands of Kininvie were granted in 1521 by John, 3rd Earl of Athole, to Alexander Leslie, who died in circa 1549, and whose effigy is in Mortlach Parish Church (MAB8187). The current house is said to be the original 1523 tower house, with additions in 1610, and extensive additions and alterations in 1840 by architect William Robertson. There were some further alterations and additions between 1929-1930. There are datestones from 1610 and 1726, the former re-sited after the blocking of the 1610 entrance in 1840. There is no trace and no local knowledge of the earlier structure, allegedly built in 1480.

Kininvie is an east-facing, U-plan house and is constructed from harled rubble, with polished ashlar dressings and contrasting tooled ashlar margins. The east entrance front mainly dates to 1840. The house is mainly two storeys over a raised basement (the site slopes to the west). The gabled east elevation has a near-centre, round-headed, recessed entrance porch in an advanced gabled bay, and is approached by a flight of steps oversailing the raised basement, and two long windows at the left lighting an 1840 library. The irregular south garden front incorporates three separate builds. The west wing consists of a circa 1523 single-bay tower house of four storeys and attic, with an abutting drum tower stair turret, corbelled out as a small, square cap house at the upper stage. The entrance is in the re-entrant angle, with small flanking gun loops and arrow slits. There is a centre 1610, 3-storey, 2-bay block that was remodelled in 1840. The third build is an outer advanced and gabled wing with large windows, built in 1840. The centre first-floor windows barely break the wall head under gablets, with a centre armorial. There are also re-set armorial panels in the south and west elevations. There is a small additional north bay dating to 1929-1930, at which point the rear service area was also remodelled. Mainly 1840 multi-pane glazing is used, with thick moulded wooden mullions, and a transom to one window. There are 1840 angle bartizans, and original rolled, moulded copes to the 16th and early 17th Century stacks. There are also 1840 margined end and ridge stacks. The roofs are slate.

Inside, there is a vaulted entrance lobby to the 16th Century tower house with a single room in each floor, served by a wheel stair. There are some deep moulded cornices and pegged and numbered roof timbers in the attic. The 1840 section has an entrance hall, with public rooms to the left and right, the sitting room, and the dining room. The dining room has re-used panelling, installed in 1929, and there is reeded detailing to the wooden chimneypiece and a bracketed ceiling cornice. The drawing room is in the former late-16th Century first-floor hall. It has a carved wooden Adamesque overmantel to a 1930s brick chimneypiece, and a fine late-18th Century fielded panelled door and door piece with an overdoor and acanthus detailing. There are plain 6-fielded panels to the passage face and ornate turned balusters in sets of three, with differing patterns to the staircase, installed during the 1929 alterations. The library has a simple moulded ceiling cornice, and a plain grey marble chimneypiece.

There is a dovecot (MAB8588) circa 75 m (246 feet) to the east of the house.

SHAW, L, 1882, HIST OF PROV OF MORAY II, VOL 1 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1627.

MACGIBBON, D, 1892, THE CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF SCOTLAND, 1-5, 394 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1140.

BOGDAN, NQ, 1991, Castles, Manors & Town House survey, p.37 (Bibliographic reference). SAB2251.

SDD, n.d., BLDS OF ARCH & HIST INTEREST, MORTLACH 20,6-7 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1827.

Record last edited

Oct 2 2026 9:59PM