Banff Castle, flanking pavilions and well

Banff Castle, flanking pavilions and well

Banff Castle was designed by John Adam and built between 1749 and 1752 on the site of an earlier castle. The main building is a three-storey structure with a symmetrical five-bay south front and a two-storey rear wing. It is harled with ashlar margins and dressings. The centre entrance is now obscured by a late 19th-century bow-fronted porch of tooled rubble with a front window and side entrance. Four ball finials crown the coped wallhead.

The front elevation features symmetrical fenestration with timber sash and case glazing, the outer bays paired. The first floor windows are tall, while the ground and second floor windows are shorter. Six-pane glazing appears in the ground and second floor windows, with 16-pane glazing in the first floor windows. A bandcourse runs above the ground floor windows across the full length of the frontage. A deep moulded wallhead cornice and paired corniced ridge stacks on broad bases sit beneath a piended slate roof.

The east return gable contains two long first floor windows, one of which is blind. The rear wing has small windows and a 19th-century oriel window on the first floor of the east elevation, with timber multi-pane sash and case glazing and a gabled slate roof.

The interior contains a wide stairhall with a stone paved floor. A cantilevered staircase with moulded risers rises the full height with simple turned balusters paired to each stair and a polished wooden handrail.

On the ground floor, the west room has a low ceiling with a wooden chimneypiece featuring fluted jambs and a dentilled corniced mantlepiece, decorated with blue and white Dutch tiles. The room has plain panelled doors and a simple moulded ceiling.

The first floor west room, possibly the former dining room, contains a fine ashlar chimneypiece with ribbed and shaped jambs and a corniced overmantle with a carved female mask flanked by Renaissance-style foliated frieze and marble slips. The hearth is sealed with cement. The room has a panelled dado, six-panel doors with billeted and corniced overdoors and moulded jambs, panelled window shutters, and corniced plaster ceiling, with all panelling raised and fielded.

The first floor east room, possibly the former parlour, has a coved and corniced plaster ceiling, panelled dado, and six-panel doors with over-doors and panelled window shutters, all raised and fielded. A fine white painted carved chimneypiece features lugged jambs with egg and dart borders and a small female mask in the centre, flanked by carved scroll consoles and a carved overmantle with narrow marble slips. The Italianate tiled hearth front displays decorative mosaic patterns with paired leopards, palmette and anthemion detailing, with scrolled framing. The hearth is infilled with brickwork.

The second floor east and west rooms have deep moulded ceiling cornices, panelled dados, window shutters and doors, with all panelling raised and fielded. Each room contains a small closet.

The East Pavilion is a small square two-storey, two-bay pavilion with harled ashlar margins. A later ground floor doorway has rendered margins. A curved external stair leads to the first floor entrance, screened by a quadrant wall. The pavilion has low first floor fenestration, a rear wallhead stack, and a piened slate roof.

The West Pavilion is a rectangular two-storey structure, formerly stable accommodation with service rooms above. It has a symmetrical gable front similar to the east pavilion, now marred by a slapped garage door. A forestair in the long three-bay east elevation leads to the first floor doorway. The pavilion has multi-pane glazing and a piened slate roof.

A small square outbuilding at the northwest angle is believed to have formerly housed privies.

The well in the forecourt was designed by W.L. Duncan of Turriff and built in 1926. It is a domed peristyle structure.