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Summary

Description

Old Montrose House originated as a late 18th century rectangular plan red sandstone house, extended circa 1840 by an L-plan addition to the E and single storey office range to the N of the original house, forming a narrow courtyard; these are distinguished by crowstepped, finialled gables and some hoodmoulded windows. A couple of canted bay windows to the ground floor were added in the mid 19th century and a corbelled-out pyramidal roofed tower to the S elevation and a lean-to addition to the N elevation were added in the later 19th/early 20th century. The house is approached by two curving drives which skirt round a large walled garden to the N.

Description:

The oldest part of the house is largely concealed when approaching the N entrance front, which is dominated by a double gabled elevation with a projecting central single storey porch with a roll-moulded doorpiece. The single storey office wing is set just forward of the main house, to the W.

The S elevation displays clearly the three phases of building; the 18th century wing, which became a service wing when the house was extended, is 5-bay, with 3 heavy shouldered ridge stacks (partly rebuilt). The rear elevation of this wing has very few openings, as was normal for N elevations of that period.

The square-plan tower, with a slightly bell-cast pyramidal roof, overlays the junction between the 18th century wing and the 2 bay M-gabled 1840 extension, of which the left gable is advanced with a canted bay window to the ground floor.

Materials: mainly random red sandstone rubble with ashlar detailing; much reused stone with red brick pinnings to the 18th century wing;stugged snecked sandstone to the tower. Timber sash and case windows, mainly 12-pane glazing, but with some variations, including horizontal panes to the N elevation and modern 8-pane timber top hung casement windows to 1st floor to E and S elevations. Pitched graded slate to 19th century sections, built of corniced ashlar with octangular cans.

Interior: former school room with ornate stone chimneypiece. There are other chimneypieces (not all original); some plasterwork; cast-iron balusters to stairs; etched glass skylight above. Some late 19th century / early 20th century domestic fittings, including stone shelving and large Belfast sinks, remain in the office wing and W wing.

Gatepiers And Wall: at entrance to E drive, square-plan ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal caps, flanked by short curved brick wing walls. W drive gatepiers listed separately.

Statement of Special Interest

B-Group with Old Montrose, Walled Garden, Garden Buildings, and Gardener's Cottage, Old Montrose Grieve's House and Old Montrose Gatepiers.

Old Montrose House is a little-altered example of a small scale country house and associated garden structures, with an interesting history of development and clear architectural merit. Old Montrose estate was the seat of the Earls and Dukes of Montrose for several centuries, dating back to the 15th century. There was originally a tower-house here, of which the Grieve's House is thought to incorporate some fabric. During the 18th century, the estate changed hands several times, and plans for improvement were drawn up, particularly proposals of 1764 for the formation of a walled garden, the retention of part of the manor-house as offices, and the construction of a new house. Although these particular plans do not appear to have been used, some of the proposed changes do appear to have taken place; a plan of 1786 shows the present walled gardens and gardener's cottage.

Several sources suggest that the current Old Montrose House was built circa 1840, when the original house apparently became uninhabitable and was largely demolished. However, visual assessment of Old Montrose House confirms that it was built in at least 3 phases, the first of which certainly predates 1840. The Third Statistical Account comments that the present house was originally built as a dower house. It is likely that a dower house (now forming the west wing) was built in the late 18th or early 19th century, and was extended circa 1840 to produce a house large and prestigious enough to replace the old mansion house. Both Old Montrose House itself and the stable building incorporate a great deal of reused stone in their fabric, and this is very likely to have been sourced from the original tower/ mansion house, including the roll moulded lintels in the cellar and the stable block, and the joggle-jointed lintel of the stable block, which is clearly of high quality workmanship and may have originally been made as the lintel of a large fireplace opening.

The extensive use of brick, mainly in the garden buildings, but also in the older areas of the house, including the cellars, is of note because of its early date; Montrose had number of brickworks by the early 19th century, but the bricks were mostly used for flues and chimney heads.

References

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