Robinson Crusoe House, 101 And 105 Main Street, Lower Largo is a Grade B listed building in the Fife local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 1 March 1984. 1 related planning application.

Robinson Crusoe House, 101 And 105 Main Street, Lower Largo

WRENN ID
peeling-bracket-brook
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Fife
Constituency
North East Fife MP: Wendy Chamberlain (LD)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
1 March 1984
Address
Robinson Crusoe House, 101 And 105 Main Street, Lower Largo, KY8 6BJ
OS grid reference
NO 420 026
Coordinates
56.2131, -2.93559
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Robinson Crusoe House is a two-storey, five-bay house built in 1885 by David Gillies, a net manufacturer. It was constructed on the site of a former thatched cottage, and commemorates Alexander Selkirk, the mariner who inspired Daniel Defoe’s novel ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and was born in the original cottage. The building is of whin rubble construction with large, finely finished ashlar dressings, incorporating some concrete repairs. The facade features two central doors and a statue of Robinson Crusoe, sculpted by Stuart Burnett, set within a niche above. The windows are arranged as inner flanking bipartites (two-light windows) and outer single-light windows. The roof is pantiled, with a slate easing course, straight skews (roof verge details), and end stacks (chimneys). In 1935, the house was altered by James Gilles to create four flats. A plaque on the building acknowledges Selkirk’s life, detailing his four years and four months spent in solitude on Juan Fernandez island, his death as a lieutenant in HMS Weymouth in 1723, and the statue’s creation by David Gillies. Records from the National Monuments Record of Scotland and the Gillies Photograph Archive provide further information.

Local climate

Robinson Crusoe House, 101 And 105 Main Street, Lower Largo receives an average of 900 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 67% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 55% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 21 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 78% of listed buildings. Of these, 11 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 1 application
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Robinson Crusoe House, 99 And 103 Main Street, Lower Largo Grade B 4 m
  2. Bower House, 92 Main Street, Lower Largo Grade C 50 m
  3. Bower House, 90 Main Street, Lower Largo Grade C 54 m
  4. 119 Main Street, Lower Largo Grade B 60 m
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