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Summary

Description

Possibly Sir William Bruce, circa 1705; later alterations and additions including bathroom block, Leadbetter, Fairley and Reid, 1914-20. Symmetrical classical country house. 2-storey, with attic, over half sunk basement, or cellar storey, 5-bay rectangular-plan corps-de-logis with 2-storey, 2-bay flanking pavilions linked to main block by quadrant walls. Steps and platt to entrance at principal floor level. Pink and cream stugged sandstone; (coursed and squared rubble to rear and to pavilions) with polished ashlar dressings. Base course; raised margins to windows; moulded, shouldered margins with consoled cills to NW (principal elevation) windows of pavilions; eaves course; strip quoins. Later lean-to greenhouse facing garden to rear (SE).

CORPS-DE-LOGIS: NW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: pedimented doorpiece with roll-moulded and lugged architrave, approached by stair to raised principal floor level; 2-leaf, part-glazed timber panelled door; window at 1st floor; dormer window above. Small opening at cellar storey set to right of stair; window at principal floor and 1st floor, or lodging storey, in bays to right of centre; dormer window set between above. Window at each floor in bays to left of centre; dormer window set between above.

SE (REAR) ELEVATION: 7-bay, grouped 2-3-2. Advanced, central 3-bay group (later): 2-leaf, part-glazed door with rectangular fanlight at ground in bay to centre; window at 1st floor above. Window at each floor in bays flanking. Tripartite dormer window centrally set above. Main block: window at each floor (including basement) in flanking bays; 2 tripartite dormers set between above.

PAVILIONS: single bay, 2-storey, rectangular-plan pavilions. Boarded door to ground; window at 1st floor above; 2-bay returns with window at each floor in each bay; (coach arch at ground to SW elevation of right hand pavilion).

3 original 24-pane timber sash and case windows to NE; 12-pane timber sash and case windows (4-pane to basement) to main block; casement to central rear dormer; 6-pane fixed windows to ground floor of pavilions. Bell-cast grey slate piend and platform roof; piended dormers to NW; flat dormers to SE; grey slate piend roofs to pavilions; 2 ashlar corniced stacks to platform of corps-de-logis; polygonal cans; single ashlar corniced ridge stacks to pavilions; coped linking quadrant walls; cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: fine interiors: 1st floor landing panelled with Memel pine; pine lugged, architraved landing doors; oak-panelled drawing room; moulded stone fireplaces with lugged and corniced surrounds; pine- panelled principal bedroom with allegorical romantic painted panels; shutters intact; moulded stone staircase with freestone newels; stone architraves to attic doorways; plain cornices; partly vaulted basement.

OUTBUILDINGS: parallel range of two single storey gabled outbuildings to NE. Squared rubble with ashlar margins to openings. BUILDING TO RIGHT (SW): NE ELEVATION: segmental arch with boarded doors; 2 leaf garage doors to left; window to right; boarded door with hayloft opening (also boarded) and weather vane above to gable end. BUILDING TO LEFT (NE) SW ELEVATION: 2 sets of boarded garage doors. Grey slate roof with skylights; coped skews.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: circular-plan ashlar sandstone gatepiers with band cope, circular cap and ball finial. Sandstone rubble walls with square cope.

Statement of Special Interest

Sometimes spelt Auchendinny. Although Auchindinny is not documented as such, it has been attributed to Sir William Bruce, originally by Henry Mackenzie in his book Anecdotes and Egotisms; he lived in the house from 1795-1807 and praised Bruce for his smokeless flues. Other eminent tenants include Archibald Fletcher, 'Father of Burgh Reform', who died there in 1828. The estate was bought by John Inglis of Langbyres, Lanarkshire, from the Prestons of Gorton in 1702 and building began around 1705, possibly incorporating parts of an earlier house (see Fenwick, p102). The masonry was probably originally harled and the positioning of the stacks suggest the division of the house into the simplest form of double-pile. The rear bathroom block was added by Leadbetter, Fairley and Reid, 1914 1920. The pavilions are sometimes said to have been a later addition. The east pavilion was the gardener's house and potting shed, having an external spiral stair to the rear; the western one was the servants' quarters and linked to the main house by a (later) passage. The painted panels in the master bedroom are possibly by James Norie who had done similar work at Brunstane, Newhailes and possibly Prestonfield nearby. Allegorical in subject matter, one scene seems to depict the local tourist attraction, Rosslyn Chapel. As at Kinross, where the house is aligned, through the axial garden, with Leven Castle, Auchindinny is also related to its wider landscape. The main central avenue of the garden was planned to line up with an Iron Age fort, located at the foot of the Pentland Hills in the distance.

References

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