Cairness House

Cairness House

Cairness House is an outstanding example of French Neo-classical architecture of the Boullee Ledoux School, built by Robert Burns by 1781 and substantially enlarged and reworked by James Playfair between 1791 and 1797 for Charles Gordon of Buthlaw. The portico was designed by Sir John Soane, working from Playfair's design and drawings.

The main block is two storeys with a basement and features a five-window centre of the original house, flanked by three-storey advanced wings each containing one window to the front. The ground floor has pedimented tripartite windows. A tetrastyle Doric porch with steps and broken column pedestals marks the entrance. Cast iron columnar chimneys rise from the roof. The materials throughout are finely detailed granite ashlar.

To the rear is a remarkable two-storey hemicycle of offices with gables featuring proto-Doric columns set in blind lunettes facing the main front. The structure is crowned by a remarkable pendentive arch in a semicircle of voussoirs that diminish in depth, and a cupola rises over. A circular ice-house stands within the courtyard.

The interior contains a fine suite of ground floor rooms with very original treatment. The space behind the entrance hall, formerly a billiard room, is now thought to be designed as a Masonic Temple, displaying Egyptian styling. The drawing room features a bold treatment of circles in shallow relief and Ionic columns in the window recess. The dining room has a plain ceiling with Doric columns in the window recess. The library contains a Soanic pendentive ceiling.

The house displays overt Masonic and Templar symbolism based upon the Temple of Solomon, particularly evident in Playfair's remodelling of Burns' more subdued original style. During the Second World War the house was requisitioned for War Office use. In the early 1950s the grounds and gardens were converted to agricultural purposes. Since new ownership in the late 20th century, the setting has been gradually reclaimed and restored to a more domestic character, with extensive interior restoration work undertaken and continuing.

Cairness House forms part of an 'A' group listing that includes a walled garden and south lodges and gates. Plans are held at the residence and in the Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. The description was revised in 2008.