Esslemont House

Esslemont House is a large, Baronial-style building of 1865, designed by J. Russell Mackenzie, incorporating fabric from a preceding house built in 1769 at its centre. The exterior is constructed of squared granite, with an asymmetrical design incorporating a four-storey crenellated tower to the south-east, topped with an ogee-capped bell turret. A distinctive semi-circular entrance feature is corbelled to a square base.

The interior is simple, although the staircase was reconstructed around 1958 by A.G.R. Mackenzie. Very little of the original 1769 house remains intact, with sections of masonry observable, primarily on the north front. This original section featured a design of two storeys and a basement, with five windows, a piend roof, substantial chimneys, and a central round-arched porch, as shown in a photograph held at the house.

References relating to the construction and the building itself are documented in contracts published in the Aberdeen Journal in May 1865, in Godsman's 'Ellon', page 109, and in the New Statistical Account, volume XII, page 905.