Leslie House

Leslie House is a substantial classical mansion built in Fife following destruction by fire, now serving as a Church of Scotland residential home. It represents the largest and earliest Restoration-period house in the county.

The house was originally constructed between 1667 and 1672 for John, 7th Earl and only Duke of Rothes, on the site of earlier Leslie lands. The original building, said to have been modelled on Holyrood Palace and arranged around a court with a gallery 3 feet longer than the palace's, was destroyed by fire on 28 December 1763. The present much smaller house was subsequently built, reportedly incorporating a restoration of the least damaged west side for John, 11th Earl. Plans and drawings of the original east and west fronts appear in Vitruvius Scoticus. The house was acquired by Sir Robert Spencer Nairn in 1919, and he gifted it to the Church of Scotland in 1952 for use as an Eventide Home. Further alterations and conversion to this use took place between 1905 and 1908, and again in 1945 by architects James Gillespie and Scott.

The house is constructed in ashlar with a base course, moulded string courses and cavetto eaves cornice. It rises three storeys with a vaulted basement and attic storey. The south and east elevations show coursed whinstone with patches of heavy pointing, with evidence of various alterations.

The principal west elevation presents a near-symmetrical composition of thirteen bays grouped 2-3-3-3-2. A pedimented three-bay centrepiece is advanced, featuring a door at its centre within a pilastered arcade of three depressed arches with keystones and fluted pilasters bearing Doric capitals, framing six smaller pilasters. Windows occupy the outer bays. The pediment bears the Rothes coat-of-arms, part of later re-working. Flanking the centrepiece are three recessed bays on each side, with the two outer bays on each side being advanced. The extreme right bay contains a door with regular fenestration at the first and second floors. Round-headed dormers are positioned over bays 4 and 10, and centrally between the outer bays. Pedimented dormers flank the centrepiece and stand over bays 9 and 11; all dormer windows are slate-hung and bear medallions. A balustraded parapet crowns the elevation.

The east elevation is three storeys high and eleven bays wide, with a conservatory adjoining at the left side. A stepped centre door with shaped pediment is flanked by four windows grouped 1-2-1 to the right and three windows grouped 1-2 to the left, with a further door at the outer left now obscured by the conservatory. Regular fenestration appears at the first and second floors, with a stair window in bays 4 and 8. A long, low flat-roofed dormer window spans two penultimate bays to the right.

The south elevation comprises three storeys with a raised basement. A canted window projects right of centre at ground and first floor levels, with a window above. Further windows occupy the bay to the left at each floor.

The north elevation displays four storeys (the basement being above ground) and four bays in the main building. A two-storey, three-bay piend-roofed extension adjoins to the left, with a single-storey, three-bay lean-to extension further to the outer left. A door stands at the outer right with two windows to the left at ground level; regular fenestration appears at all other levels of the main building. A fire escape to the left has windows in the penultimate left bay at the third and fourth floors converted to doors. The two-storey extension exhibits two barred windows at each level, with a further window at first floor on the east return face above a single-storey extension that has a centre pedimented door and barred windows in the flanking bays.

Windows throughout are predominantly of sash and case construction with twelve-pane glazing patterns and thick astragals, though the west-facing dormer windows display four-pane glazing and fixed stair windows show a fifteen-pane pattern. The roof is finished in graded grey slates to the piend and leaded platform. Dormerheads are ashlar-coped, and paired cavetto-coped stacks with base courses project from the roofline.

The interior retains a classical decorative scheme, now adapted to nursing home requirements. A paved lobby with slate diamonds leads to the main hall, which is dominated by a fireplace and enclosed within what was originally the portico. The hall contains two sets of stairs with alternating straight and barleysugar-turned wood balusters and moulded risers. A wide north-south dividing landing has been altered to accommodate bathrooms. Several fine carved chimneypieces, doorheads and cornices survive. Panelled coombed ceilings are present in the attic. A Lorimeresque doorway echoes the prominent keystone of a deep-set panelled door.

A fully glazed Victorian conservatory of rectangular plan adjoins the house, featuring a glazed lantern, ashlar base course, a band of glazed pivot ventilators above, and an interior with ornate cast-iron columns, flange brackets and shelving.

The terraced garden to the south comprises three terraces retained by rubble walls. Access is provided through pedestrian gateways with timber and cast-iron gates leading to seventeenth-century staircases. A formal garden to the east possibly contains some remains of Robert Adam gardens from 1731. A large carved stone flower basin or fountain stands on a triangular plinth with remnants of three seated sculptured figures in classical drapes, deeply-carved ivy-leaf decoration to the fluted stem, and paterae detail to the cornice. Extensive coped whinstone rubble boundary walls surround the property.

The Leslie family acquired Fythkil (the original parish name) circa 1282, renaming the estate after family lands in Aberdeenshire. The family became Earls of Rothes in 1457. The badly eroded shaped pediment above the east door was possibly moved from the main entrance and was originally inscribed with the coroneted monogram of the 7th Earl and his countess, Anne Lindsay.

The 1905-08 alterations originally attributed to Sir Robert Lorimer are now considered unlikely; plans in the Gillespie Scott Archive document alterations to a bay window on the south elevation, opening into the drawing room, strengthening of the gallery and billiard room floors, and addition of a servants' scullery and brushing room on the north elevation, along with numerous alterations to buildings within the policies. The south-facing outer right dormer window is inaccessible from the interior, being concealed behind wall panelling.

Leslie House is grouped with West Lodge, West Gate, Duke's Lodge, Duke's Lodge Gates and Forester's Lodge. The listing was upgraded from Grade B to Grade A in September 2002.