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Summary

Description

William Robertson, 1828, classical single storey E entrance front with drawing room (S) and dining room (N) masking extensive and much altered 18th and 19th century rambling 2-storey dwelling over raised basement. Harled E front with extensive use of polished Moray sandstone ashlar dressings; remainder of house also harled with ashlar margins.

E FRONT: pedimented tetrastyle portico with fluted Greek Doric columns; centre door with moulded and lugged doorpiece; decorative geometric glazing to rectangular fanlight. Flanking round-headed shallow niches and lugged and moulded architraves to outer long aproned windows. S and N return gables expressed as shallow bowed bays, each lit by pair long aproned windows with moulded surrounds and original lying-pane glazing. Deep string-coursed eaves band below moulded cornice; clasping angle pilaster strips.

S ELEVATION: rambling 2-storey garden front. Symmetrical, off-centre gabled wing with 2 ground and 2 1st floor windows, the gable with deep eaves and plain bargeboards returning to suggest open pediment, as remodelled 1828. 2 pronounced bowed bay windows (1903) rising full height and each lit by 3 windows in each floor.

REAR: irregular rear elevation, the centre portion revealing 3 storeys with centre door in raised basement with armorial above lintel. Varied glazing. Paired corniced symmetrically placed stacks to 1828 E wing; similar stacks, all of 1828 re-model, elsewhere; slate roofs.

INTERIOR: entrance hall with simple moulded cornice; corniced doorpieces to entrances, L to drawing room and R to dining room (billiard room, 1994).

DRAWING ROOM: original simple white marble chimneypiece; panelled dado and doors. Fine deep blue wallpaper in chinese style, said to date from 1828.

DINING ROOM: original plain black marble chimneypiece, similar in style to that in drawing room.

REMAINDER OF INTERIOR: much remodelled in both 1828 and 1903. Simple mid 18th century stone stairs with 1903 balustrade further extended c.1990. 1828 marble chimneypiece in present diningroom.

Statement of Special Interest

Panoramic site on E bank of River Deveron. Eden is an old estate, dating at least from 1308 when the land belonged to the Earl of Buchan. It passed through the Meldrum family and to a branch of the Duffs (Earls of Fife). The core of the present house, said to have been a fishing lodge, is alleged to have been built in 1724. The armorial above the N doorway bears the initials ID and MD and dated 1724. In 1824 Eden passed to James Cunningham Grant Duff, who settled there after distinguished service with the East India Company. He re-modelled and enlarged Eden House, developed the policies, drained the land and constructed most of the estate buildings. In 1839, he founded a pedigree herd of Shorthorn cattle centred on Mains of Eden (by Eden Castle). This herd achieved national repute before being sold in 1854. Despite the small size of the Eden estate, it has a full repetoire of ancillary buildings, dating mainly from 1840-55. The following are listed separately below:- walled garden; the Coach House

(former carriage house and stables); Bell Cottage; North and South Lodges; Home Farm with farmhouse, steading, dovecote and mill.

References

Bibliography

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