Glencairn, former Service Cottage to King Edward Old Parish Manse

Glencairn is a former service cottage to King Edward Old Parish Manse, dating from 1767. The building sits on a south-facing sloping site and has developed into a roughly cruciform plan through various later extensions. It is constructed of harled rubble with contrasting painted margins and some tooled ashlar dressings.

The nucleus of the house, dating to 1767, consists of a central south-facing 2-storey, 3-bay block with small windows and a centre door. In 1833, the original 1767 manse was probably raised to accommodate an attic containing 2 rooms lit by small windows below the wallhead in the outer bays only. The skewputt datestones at the south-east were also raised and reinstated at this time, and new margined end stacks were added.

Major alterations were undertaken in 1870, probably by the architects A & W Reid of Elgin. These included a new projecting crowstepped south wing with a ground floor dining room and a 1st floor drawing room lit by a full-height tooled ashlar canted bay window in a crowstepped and finialled front gable. A square entrance porch was inserted in the re-entrant angle with a 2-pane fanlight to the door and a blocking course. Dormer windows in the south elevation were raised to break the wallhead and given gabletted dormerheads. Part of the rear wing was probably added at this time.

Further repairs and alterations followed in 1882–3 and 1894, again probably by A & W Reid. The 2-storey, 3-bay rear service wing was completed in its present form to accommodate a new kitchen and 1st floor service bedrooms. A tall and narrow border-glazed rear stair window was added. The surviving small 1767 front windows received 12-pane glazing in timber sash windows, with plate glass and 4-pane glazing used elsewhere. The building has coped end and wallhead chimney stacks, a slate roof, and coped skews.

The interior contains large front dining and drawing rooms with plain plaster cornices. A late 19th-century staircase serves the 1st floor. An inserted stair, probably from 1833, leads from the 1st floor to the attic. The 2 front attic rooms have coombed ceilings, probably from 1833, with simple plaster cornices.

A rear service cottage, probably dating from the early 19th century, comprises a 2-storey, 2-bay structure that may incorporate a former stable. It is harled with painted margins. The long elevations face east and west, with a door and flanking window in the east elevation facing the service court and rear entrance to the manse service wing. Small 1st floor windows are present. The cottage has mainly 12-pane glazing, a single end chimney stack, and an asbestos-tiled roof.

A coped rubble garden wall divides the garden from the road to the north and east. At the rear are gates and gatepiers, with a low coped wall leading to square-section pyramidal-capped piers and 2-leaf iron gates.

The site previously held a pre-1767 manse which was a single-storey, thatched dwelling of 2 rooms and a loft. The height between the 1st floor windows and wallhead, together with the asymmetrically placed attic windows, suggest that the manse was raised in 1833 to accommodate the additional attic rooms. The architect for this work may have been William Robertson of Elgin, who, together with his nephews and successors A & W Reid, had a long association with the parish. The attic coombed plaster ceiling was old-fashioned by 1870 when the major additions are documented. Godsman records new kitchens and a staircase in 1882–3.