Keith Marischal

Keith Marischal is a substantial three-storey mansion composed of several different building phases, resulting in a long, irregular plan. The building combines a 16th-century tower with early 19th-century additions and late 19th-century alterations, creating a complex architectural evolution.

The earliest element is the tower at the east end, dated 1589 and largely altered since. It forms a gabled north-south block with a four-storey gabled corner tower at the south-east, topped with wallhead and gablehead stacks. A corbelled turret sits in the re-entrant angle to the south. Openings are irregular and altered, with a door at the foot of the corner tower.

The early 19th-century block forms a wing of nine bays adjoined to the west elevation of the tower. The south elevation displays near-regular fenestration with a forestair added and a door to the penultimate bay at principal floor level. The adjoining service block is two storeys high, with a jettied parapet to the north and various lean-to additions to the outer west. Gabled dormerheads to first-floor windows break the eaves to the south.

In 1889, architect Charles G Kinnear of Kinnear and Peddie added significant new work to the north elevation. This includes an advanced gabled bay at the centre of the three-storey range, with a doorway at its foot featuring a roll-moulded surround and heavily corbelled cornice. The first floor is bipartite with a corbelled gablehead above. A round tower is set in the re-entrant angle to the left of centre, with an advanced two-storey bay to the left linking to the tower and featuring a balustrade. A corbelled square bartizan was added to the north-east angle, and a circular bartizan to the north-west angle. Windows were enlarged during these works. A 17th-century armorial was inserted on the south elevation of the tower in 1893, transferred from Rubislaw in Aberdeenshire.

The building is constructed in harled red sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, displaying rounded and chamfered arrises. The roof is covered with grey-green slates. Various glazing patterns appear in the sash and case windows. Ashlar coping runs to later skews, with crowsteps to the entrance jamb and some stone finials. Harled gable wallheads and ridge stacks complete the external detailing.

The interior retains significant features of interest. The ground floor of the tower is vaulted. Early 18th-century panelling is present, and there is a painted ceiling to a bedroom in the north-east wing at second-floor level. A Gothick chimneypiece by Kinnear adorns the entrance hall. The dining room contains an early 19th-century marble chimneypiece with a beam and penchant ceiling, also by Kinnear. Other fine decoration has been retained throughout.

A harled rubble garden wall adjoins the east side of the house, incorporating a pedestrian gateway with a short flight of steps and decorative cast-iron balustrade. The entrance features square droved ashlar piers with decorative timber "saloon" gates.

The tower was built by George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal of Scotland, who acted as mediator for the marriage of James VI and Anne of Denmark. To the north stands a ruinous former parish church, dated circa 1200 and designated as a Scheduled Monument. The gardens to the south of the house were evidently once formally landscaped.

The building was undergoing subdivision in 1989 under the supervision of architect Ben Tindall. Keith Marischal North and South Lodges and the Keith Marischal Steading are listed separately.