Steading, Keith Marischal

Steading, Keith Marischal

This is a quadrangular-plan steading, possibly designed by Alexander Stevens of Edinburgh, circa 1801. It is constructed in red sandstone rubble with cream ashlar dressings, broadly droved. The steading centres on an octagonal dovecot positioned within the courtyard.

The North Range forms the classical entrance front, symmetrical across 14 bays arranged as 2-2-5-2-2. The outer pairs on each side are single storey, while the remaining bays rise to two storeys with granary windows to the upper level. The five central bays are advanced. A round-arched doorway with fanlight sits at the centre, flanked by windows. Two recessed, two-storey bays flank these again, each with shallow depressed carriage arches. The outer bays have doors blocked as windows. The roof treatment varies: the five centre bays are gabled, whilst the flanking bays have piend roofs applied to both single and two-storey sections. A cornice and blocking course complete the exterior elevation. The courtyard elevation is also symmetrical, with a two-stage canted turret projecting at centre covering a pend, and a hayloft door above. Two recessed, two-storey bays flank this turret, with round-arched doorways by the centre, interrupted by later lean-to additions infilling at ground level. The advanced outer bays are abutted by infill, each with a window and piend roof adjoined to gabled cross walls of the five centre bays.

The South Range contains a two-storey piend-roofed block of cottages, formerly three, with one doorway now blocked and one blocked as a window. The first-floor windows break the eaves in flat-roofed dormerheads. The exterior shows cement rendering and updated mullions to enlarged windows. The stacks are cement rendered. To the left of this range sits a tall carriage archway, abutting the West Range. This archway comprises ashlar piers and a rounded ashlar overthrow with impost at eaves level, ashlar coped. Above rises a stone corniced bellcote, capped by a stone hemisphere, with the bell remaining in situ. A pedestrian gateway stands to the left by the West Range.

The East Range is a symmetrical eight-bay cartshed following the ground incline. The exterior elevation has a blocked depressed cart arch and two doorways. The courtyard elevation features five shallow depressed cart arches, one currently blocked, with doors in the outer bays. The roof is steeply pitched with a stack to the north gable end. Irregular, lower bays occupy the north end of the range, recessed on the exterior elevation.

The West Range has been substantially altered to its centre and south for modern machinery.

Roofing materials vary across the steading: grey-green slates cover the cottages and two-storey piends of the North Range; purple slates cover the exterior pitch of the cartshed; corrugated asbestos covers the remaining ranges except for the centre bays of the North Range, which are currently unroofed.

Within the courtyard sits a rectangular sheep pen bounded by ashlar coped walls, partially breached. Two ashlar gatepiers to the south, coped with hemispherical caps, mark the entrance where the pend abuts the dovecot. The pen is divided by timber gates and fences into channels, with an iron gate fitted with bar and lever for securing sheep.

The octagonal dovecot, possibly also by Alexander Stevens, dates to circa 1801. It rises in three stages and is constructed of red sandstone rubble with broadly droved cream ashlar dressings and a cornice. A round-arched doorway faces west, with an opening in the second stage above and a further opening to the third stage facing south. The roof is octagonal piended with a timber classical octagonal lantern and timber cupola at the apex. The lantern features timber columns and round-arched flight-holes for the birds.

The tentative attribution to Alexander Stevens of 16 St James Square, Edinburgh (not the bridge builder of the same name) derives from his earlier involvement at Keith House in 1791. No steading appears on the 1801 map, but the 1811 map reveals the quadrangular form with dovecot in place. The dovecot form was not uncommon; similar examples exist, for instance at Denbie in Dumfriesshire.