Strathenry House, Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch, Fife

Entry Name: Strathenry House

Listing Name: Strathendry House with Boundary Walls, Bee Boles and Railings

Listing Date: 24 November 1972

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 338505

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB6803

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200338505

Location: Leslie (Fife)

County: Fife

Electoral Ward: Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch

Parish: Leslie (Fife)

Traditional County: Fife

Tagged with: House

Description

William Burn, 1824, with circa 1900 additions by Henry F Kerr and removal of rear wing 20th century. 2-storey with basement, substantial Jacobethan country house with round-headed gable to main entrance and gabled windows at 1st floor with blind arrow slits. Dressed ashlar with long and short quoins, stone mullions and chamfered arrises; hoodmoulds continuous with string course at ground floor, eaves course; central stairhead cupola surrounded by roof pitches not visible from ground.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical, 3-bay. Central projecting bay with recessed tripartite entrance with moulded surround; pitch pine studded door with narrow sidelights and 5-pane fanlight; bipartite window at 1st floor with hoodmould, and semi-circular gablet with kneelers and shaft finial on foliate corbel. Tripartite windows in flanking bays to both floors.

S ELEVATION: 3-bay. Tripartite window to right bay with 2 bipartite windows to left, regular windows to 1st floor; part basement visible with bipartite window to right bay and single windows to centre and left.

W ELEVATION: projecting gable to left with bipartite windows to both floors and glazed door on return to right, shallow projecting gable to right with quadripartite windows to both floors, centre recessed with narrow windows to right and windows to left at ground and 1st floor.

N ELEVATION: asymmetrical. Piend-roofed projection to left with bipartite windows to both floors, top left window blinded; modern entrance porch in re-entrant angle obscuring doorway, adjacent window to right; 3 windows at 1st floor with narrow window between, outer right bay with blinded windows to both ground and 1st floor. Basement visible to right of projecting bay fronting courtyard area and originally housing servants quarters; door to left in projecting bay with window on return and adjacent window to right with garage door to outer right.

Principally 12-pane or 18-pane lying-pane glazing pattern in sash and case windows, ground floor windows to E, S and W with plate glass lower sashes; basement and most remaining windows with 12-pane glazing pattern in sash and case windows. Grey slates. Ashlar coped skews on ashlar bases, grouped stacks with flat coping, group of 3 polygonal, gablehead stacks to W. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: glazed and ornately astragalled hall door in broken apex pediment doorcase leading to main hallway with egg and dart cornice and side glazed cupola over stairwell, wooden handrail with brass railings. Delicate neo-classical plasterwork to S drawing room, heavier plasterwork decoration of structural members and brackets to E room; original fanlit doors to upper floor N facing workrooms; many window shutters retained. Basement with vaulted storage areas and evidence of original kitchen area.

BOUNDARY WALLS, BEE BOLES AND RAILINGS: coped whinstone rubble boundary walls to NW with paired bee boles and single blocked opening, possibly further bee bole; blocked low doorway and adjacent small window lead to small stone building on neighbouring property Strathendry Castle. Ornate scroll-detailed ironwork railings to N doorway and courtyard.

Statement of Interest

Strathenry/Strathendry/Strathendrie as it is variously called, was built for Robert Douglas Esq. local landowner, and is described in the NEW STATISTICAL ACCOUNT as "a very handsome building, in the style of the old English manor house of Queen Elizabeth's time". William Burn's drawings show the W elevation with both gables corbelled and chimneyed; a plan of the kitchen court shows the area now demolished. Burn was also engaged in alterations to Strathendry Castle in 1824. It is reported in the 1865-71 survey that Mr Douglas discovered several blackened holes in the ground which are believed to be Roman cooking places, a Roman coin was found in garden ground nearby. Beyond the current W boundary stand the remains of a walled garden.

External Links

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