Glencairn, former King Edward Old Parish Manse

Glencairn, formerly the King Edward Old Parish Manse

This is a substantial house dating from 1767, situated on a south-facing sloping site. The building has grown through successive extensions to form a roughly cruciform plan. It is constructed of harled rubble with contrasting painted margins and some tooled ashlar dressings.

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

Major alterations occurred in 1870, probably carried out by A & W Reid of Elgin. These included a new projecting crowstepped south wing containing a ground floor dining room and 1st floor drawing room. The drawing room is 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, with gabletted dormerheads added. Part of the rear wing was probably added at this time.

In 1882-3 and 1894, further repairs and alterations, again probably by A & W Reid, saw a 2-storey, 3-bay rear service wing 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 inserted. The surviving small 1767 front windows have 12-pane glazing in timber sash frames; 12-pane glazing is used elsewhere in surviving windows, with plate glass and 4-pane glazing in newer openings. Coped end and wallhead chimney stacks and a slate roof with coped skews complete the exterior.

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

A rear service cottage, probably dating from the early 19th century, adjoins the main house. This is a 2-storey, 2-bay structure, perhaps incorporating 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. First floor windows are small. The glazing is mostly 12-pane; there is a single end chimney stack and an asbestos tiled roof.

The property is enclosed by coped rubble garden walls that divide the garden from the road to the north and east. Gates and gatepiers to the rear comprise a low coped wall leading to square-section piers with pyramidal caps, with 2-leaf iron gates.

Historical context indicates that a pre-1767 manse occupied this site. It was a single-storey thatched dwelling with 2 rooms and a loft. The height between the 1st floor windows and wallhead, together with the asymmetrically placed attic windows, suggests 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, maintained a long association with the parish. The attic coombed plaster ceiling was old-fashioned by 1870 when the major additions are documented. Records by Godsman note new kitchens and a staircase in 1882-3.