Stables, Aden House

The stables and associated buildings at Aden House date to around 1800, with a coachman’s house added in the 1830s, likely by John Smith. The complex was restored between 1976 and 1980 by McAdam Design Partnership, with Bain of Mintlaw as builders, and is now used as a museum. It forms a significant feature at the heart of the Aden estate.

The main element is an exceptional two-storey steading with a semicircular plan, centered around a tower dovecote and dwellings retaining some interior detail. A circular courtyard features a two-storey, five-bay rectangular coachman’s house, now converted into a display centre and offices. Smaller, single-storey buildings, originally a laundry and byre, have been converted into a shop and office.

The semicircular steading range has a symmetrical principal elevation facing the courtyard. This is a two-storey, eleven-bay design (grouped 4-3-4) with semicircular wings framing a four-stage, square centre tower. The tower has two cart arches at its base, Venetian windows on the second and third stages (the upper window being blind), a tripartite lunette with flight holes at the top, and a truncated pyramid roof topped with a Roman Doric columned open cupola and weathervane finial. Each curved wing includes paired cart arches flanking the tower, a stone forestair, and various door and window openings on each floor of the outer bays. The rear (north) elevation features a later single-storey museum wing projecting from the tower’s base, along with forestairs. A three-bay wing projects into higher ground to the east, with three cart arches on its return and a door below a projecting gabled end containing a bellcote. Evidence suggests a former millwheel housing was set back on the right side.

The coachman’s house, a two-storey, five-bay rectangular building, stands opposite the semicircular range within the courtyard. The slightly projecting centre bay to the south has a segmental cart arch with arrow slits above a gable with a blind oculus. Flanking bays have panelled timber doors with five-part fanlights, and windows fill the outer bays, all below smaller horizontal windows on the first floor. The interior retains original details such as timber loose boxes, cobbled setts, iron feeding troughs, and fireplaces.

A small, single-storey shop and Book of Deer Project office, originally a byre and dairy, curves to the southwest, mirroring the semicircular range.

The buildings feature multi-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows with top openings. Grey slates cover the roofs, with some rooflights on the lower elevations. Stacks are constructed from ashlar and harled materials, some with thackstanes and shouldered details topped with polygonal cans. The semicircular range has ashlar-coped skewes, while the coachman’s house has plain bargeboarding. Doors are of boarded or panelled timber.