Dovecot, Keith Marischal

A quadrangular steading with a central octagonal dovecot, possibly designed by Alexander Stevens of Edinburgh around 1801. The steading is constructed in red sandstone rubble with cream ashlar dressings, broadly tooled, and a cornice with blocking course.

The northern range is the most architecturally refined element, presenting a symmetrical façade of 14 bays to the exterior. The bays are arranged 2-2-5-2-2, with the outermost pairs on each side rising to a single storey, while the remaining bays are two storeys with granary windows to the upper level. The five centre bays are advanced and rise to a gable, flanked by bays with piended roofs. A round-arched door with fanlight occupies the centre, with flanking windows. Two recessed two-storey bays on either side feature shallow depressed carriage arches, and the paired outer bays have doors that have been blocked and converted to windows. The courtyard elevation is equally symmetrical, with a projecting two-stage canted turret at the centre covering the pend and carrying a hayloft door above. Two recessed two-storey bays flank this, with round-arched doorways by the centre, now partly obscured by later lean-to additions. Later in-fill work abuts the advanced outer bays.

The southern range comprises a two-storey, piend-roofed block of cottages with first-floor windows that break the eaves in flat-roofed dormerheads. The exterior has been cement-rendered with enlarged windows and cement-rendered stacks. Originally three cottages, one doorway has been blocked and another blocked as a window. A tall carriage archway stands to the left, abutting the western range, with ashlar piers, a rounded ashlar overthrow with impost at eaves level, and ashlar coping. Above sits a corniced bellcote capped with a stone hemisphere, containing a bell in situ. A pedestrian gateway lies to the left by the western range.

The eastern range is a symmetrical eight-bay cartshed following the incline of the site. The exterior elevation has a blocked depressed cart arch and two doorways, while the courtyard elevation displays five shallow depressed cart arches, one currently blocked, with doors in the outer bays. A steeply pitched roof with a stack to the north gable end crowns the range. Irregular, lower bays at the north end are recessed on the exterior elevation.

The western range has been substantially altered at its centre and south for modern machinery.

Roofing materials vary: grey-green slate covers the cottages and the two-storey piends of the northern range; purple slate covers the external pitch of the cartshed; corrugated asbestos covers the remaining ranges, except for the centre bays of the northern range, which are currently unroofed.

Within the courtyard sits a rectangular sheep pen with ashlar-coped walls, now partially breached. Two ashlar gatepiers with hemispherical caps stand to the south, positioned where the pend abuts the dovecot. Timber gates and fences divide channels leading to an iron gate with bar and lever for securing sheep.

The dovecot is an octagonal three-stage structure, possibly also designed by Alexander Stevens around 1801. It is built in red sandstone rubble with broadly tooled cream ashlar dressings and a cornice. A round-arched doorway opens to the west, with openings to the second stage above and to the third stage to the south. The octagonal piended roof carries a timber classical octagonal lantern with a timber cupola at the apex, supported on timber columns with round-arched flight-holes.

The tentative attribution to Alexander Stevens of 16 St James Square, Edinburgh (not to be confused with the bridge builder of the same name) is based on his earlier work at Keith House in 1791. No steading appears on the 1801 map, but that of 1811 clearly shows the quadrangular form with the dovecot in place. The octagonal dovecot form was not uncommon in the period, with similar examples such as that at Denbie in Dumfriesshire.