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Summary

Description

Dated 1593; drawing room extension at E mid 19th century; new wing and some restoration and embellishment by Sir Robert Lorimer, dated 1902. Original castle irregular-plan 2-storey and attic, made L-plan by addition of 2-storey wing forming large country house. Harled, ashlar dressings , grey slate roof. Base course at 1902 wing; mostly 12-pane sash and case windows, some smaller casements, ashlar margins and moulded architraves, gabled dormerheads with sculpted gable and finial decoration; wallhead course, moulded and continuous with dormerhead architraves at 1902 wing; coped crowstepped gables with skewputts; stacks with moulded coping; corbelled bartizans with moulded eaves courses an dogival roofs; cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers.

ORIGINAL CASTLE, E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: door with moulded doorpice inscribed 'I.D.I.F 1593' on lintel at left re-entrant of round stair tower, corbelled to square at attic with shaped gable dormerhead and round tower with squinch arch and small window at 1st floor re-entrant, 2 stair windows; dormerhead at otherwise blank bay at left; slightly advanced bay at right with 2 narrow windows at ground floor, two 6-pane windows at 1st, swept roof, advanced gable at far right with door formed from window at ground floor, window at 1st, 6-pane window with large moulded segmental lintel at gable, window at left re-entrant probably formed from door with corbelling above, window at 1st floor wallhead stack at right, gable stack of castle further recessed at right; single storey wall at outer right forming kitchen court and masking ground floor of E gable of 1902 wing.

ORIGINAL CASTLE, S GABLE: window at 1st floor right, bartizan at left, gable stack.

ORIGINAL CASTLE, W (GARDEN) ELEVATION: 5 irregular bays with window at ground, 1st and attic floor, bartizans with small 4-pane windows at angles.

1902 WING, N ELEVATION: main block at right; 2-leaf door at left with blocked, moulded and corniced doorpiece , dated and initialled lintel, sculpted arrangement of arms above; gable at left return with window at ground and 1st floor, aperature at gable apex; 2-bay gable at right with 2 windows at ground and 1st floor, gable stack; 24-pane stair window at far right with window at ground floor and dormerhead adjoining to its right; wallhead stack, lower flat-roofed canted projection at outer right with part traceried windows at left and right returns, moulded coping with crown motif; similar full-height canted bay at right return gable but with 24-pane window at 1st floor, Tudor rose motifs at wallhead and gargoyle waterspout. Lower recessed block at left of door; 4-pane window at centre wiht mannered lintel flanked by two 6-pane windows, tile-hung 1st floor with 3 segmental 6-pane windows. Block at far left; slightly advanced gable at right with two 15-pane windows at ground floor and window with large moulded segmental lintel at gable, bay at left with window at ground floor; left return gable, masked at ground floor by wall with door and 2 windows forming kitchen court, 3 windows at 1st floor, arrangement of arms at gable, lower tile-hung bay with window linking original castle at left.

1902 WING, S ELEVATION: advanced paired gables at off-centre right, 16-pane window at ground floor left, window at 1st, 2 windows at ground floor right, 2 windows at 1st, apertures at gable with mannered motifs, thistle motif at centre valley, dormerhead at left return; lower recessed bay at right with 2 windows at ground floor, paired segmental window at tile-hung 1st floor, window at ground floor and dormerhead at return of bay linking original castle; round tower at left re-entrant angle with bowed window at ground floor, 4-pane window at 1st, scale and platt forestair with cast-iron railings to door at 1st floor; 2-bay block recessed at left with 2 bipartite windows with moulded architraves at ground floor, 2 dormerheads, further smaller window at right, sundial with hour glass motif dated 1903 at left angle, projecting glazed screen sheltering paved terrace.

INTERIOR: original castle; barrel vaulted rooms at ground floor with rebuilt kitchen chimneypiece. 1902 wing; dining room has been sub-divided, panelled hall with decorative plasterowrk at ceiling, well stair with grape motif baluster panels; chapel at sunken ground floor has inscribed ogival-headed entrance doorpiece with Virgin and child (Our Lday of Aberdeen?) in niche above, turquoise green painted ceiling and wall panelling, gilt reredos carved with grape vine and bird motifs, copy of Gozzoli's Annunciation, other gilt ceiling cornice and confessional decoration, pointed ashlar arch at original sanctuary with 2 stained glass windows depicting the Annunciation, keystoned segmental arch at present sanctuary; panelled drawing room at 1st floor above chapel has wagon roof with typical lorimer vine tympanum decoration panelled boudoir off has domed ciling.

GARDEN WALLS AND DOVECOT: various walls in garden layout including raised ha-ha at S; ruined 17th century square-plan rubble dovecog on banks of Murroes burn.

Statement of Special Interest

The Durham family of the Grange, Monifieth acquire Pitkerro in the sixteenth century and probably built the original surviving castle. The inscribed lintel of the entrance tower probably refers to James Durham who obtained a charter under the Great Seal in 1593. The Dick family succeeded the Durhams and Lt Col Archibald Campbell douglas Dick commissioned Lorimer to restore and extend the building in 1902. The lintel over the front door is thus inscribed 'ADD - 1902 - IDD', and the arrangement of arms above 'DILIGENTIA ET CANDORE'. The arrangement of arms at the east gable of the 1902 wing is inscribed 'MID AC'. The house was vacant and dilapidated after the Second World War when a Catholic lay community of families rented and renovated it, finally purchasing in 1974. The Pitkerro Community were acceptred as Benedictine Oblates of Fort Agustus in 1982. Apart from minor alterations, the building is as it was after Lorimer restored the foofline of the castle and extended it in 1902. The hall panelling is reputedly of Californian redwood. The original drawings do not show the present sanctuary on the north elevation, which was added slighly later. The inscription over the chapel door reads 'O Lord I have loved the beauty of they house and the place where thy glory dwelleth'. The alterpiece was painted by Charlotte Duthie in circa 1908. Savage credits Lorimer with the Garden layout but it does not substantially differ from that shown on the 1901 Ordnance Survey map. There are similarities between Lorimer's work at Pitkerro and at the Grange, North Berwick.

A Group with Pitkerro Lodge.

References

Bibliography

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