Monboddo House
Monboddo House (sometimes Monboddo Castle ) is a country house near Auchenblae in the Scottish county of Kincardineshire (now part of the county of Aberdeenshire ). The building with its stepped gables , about 14 km from the North Sea , was associated with the Burnett of Leys family. Originally around 200 km² of land belonged to the country house.
history
The property had belonged to the Barclay clan since the 13th century; at that time a tower house was built there. In 1593, James Strachan was the Laird, then it fell to the Irvine clan and later to the Burnetts of Leys . On the building there is a date stone with the coat of arms of the Irvines, which contains the coat of arms of the Clan Douglas , the initials "RE" and "IE" and the year "1635". This is reminiscent of the couple who had the house rebuilt in the 17th century, Robert Ervine and Ilizabeth Ervine .
In 1714, the noted judge and philosopher James Burnett , Lord Monboddo, was born in Monboddo House. Lord Monboddo is known for his service as a member of the Court of Session , as the author of various works during the Scottish Enlightenment, and as an early supporter of the theory of evolution . When James Burnett was appointed to the Court of Sessions , he got his title from his father's estate, Monboddo House. In 1773, the writer Samuel Johnson , accompanied by James Boswell, visited Monboddo House to see James Burnett.
In 1930 G. Arthur Dixon designed a postcard for Monboddo House. After the end of the Burnetts of Leys in the early 1960s, the property fell into disrepair. James Malcolm Burnett , the last laird of Monboddo, had no children, only a stepson who now lives in Canada .
Thanks to the repairs towards the end of the 20th century and the good care of the owners, the house has been in good condition again since 2006. The current owners state that people from all over the world have considerable interest in Lord Monboddo. Interested parties come not only from the UK, but also from Japan and the USA .
Historic Scotland has listed Monboddo House as a Category B Historic Building.
description
Monboddo House has a rectangular floor plan and a staircase with a spiral staircase attached to the rear. The house has two full floors and an attic. It's plastered with Harl . The entrance facade on the north side has three windows on the lower floors and two dormers in the attic, which are attached over the outer windows. Corner towers with conical roofs protrude from the two front corners of the building.
The lower two-storey east wing, which was built a little later, has a brick dormer window from 1867. The west gable wall has only a few windows, but the date stone from 1635 described above is set in there. The south facade has changed significantly over time.
The roof is covered with slate . The crooked chimneys used by the architect Matthews , who carried out the renovation in 1867, have been replaced by new chimneys.
The vestibule in front of the house also still exists, where Lord Monboddo took his cold water bath outdoors every morning in the mid-18th century.
Interior
On the first floor there is a well-cut hall that shows the remains of previous wood paneling. The original wood paneling was destroyed by vandalism in the 1970s . The hall is equipped with two lavatory cores . The ground floor has no vaulted ceiling and the westernmost room is the old kitchen with a very large stove arch .
There is a stone spiral staircase that ascends clockwise, which is characteristic of defensive structures such as a 14th century tower house. Two loopholes with a diameter of 8 cm can be found in the 80 cm thick outer walls made of Old Red sandstone .
Surroundings
Monboddo House is surrounded by fertile farmland and meadows where crops are grown and cattle grazed. The topography of the landscape is characterized by rolling hills. In the 18th century there were already numerous smaller houses on the property and in the 19th and 20th centuries more single-family houses were built closer to Monboddo House. The area is quiet several kilometers from the next four-lane road, the A90 . Measurements showed noise levels of only 48–53 dB (A) .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
- ↑ CM Hogan: Monboddo House . Lumina Technologies, Aberdeen Library Archives, July 2006.
Web links and sources
- Official Burnetts website
- Eileen A. Bailey, James CA Burnett, Charles J. Burnett, Christopher Croly: The Holly and the Horn . Leys Publishing, Banchory 2005, ISBN 0-9538640-2-2 .
- George Burnett, J. Allardyce (Eds.): The family of Burnett of Leys . New Spalding Club, Aberdeen 1901.
- Nigel Tranter: The Fortified House in Scotland . Volume IV: Aberdeenshire, Angus and Kincardineshire. Edinburgh 1966.
Coordinates: 56 ° 53 '24 " N , 2 ° 25' 12" W.