Drummuir Castle

Drummuir Castle is a picturesque, turreted, castellated mansion dating from 1846-7, with additions made in 1865 by Alexander Reid of Elgin. Rainwater goods are dated 1847 and 1865. The building is mainly three storeys high over a raised basement, with a southwest-facing garden front and a northeast entrance elevation. It is constructed of coursed rubble with tooled and polished ashlar dressings.

The asymmetrical northeast front features an entrance fronting a square, three-storey tower, partially obscured at ground level by a substantial porte-cochere. The porte-cochere has a large, Gothic traceried window and angle turrets. The main outer ranges terminate with angle turrets rising above the wallhead, and a projecting library window is located to the left of the main entrance. A two-storey service range and service court are linked to the main frontage by a single-storey, four-bay block; two 17th-century Duff armorials have been re-set into the service court wall.

The picturesque, seven-bay southwest garden front was somewhat regularized in 1865 by raising the western portion to three storeys. A prominent central bay features a projecting canted window rising two storeys above the raised basement. Shallow Tudor-arched lintels top the basement windows on the southwest and northwest elevations. Fenestration on the first floor is hood-moulded, with square or horizontal multi-pane glazing. The building includes one drum and one corbelled octagonal angle drum-tower. Other external details include hood-moulded ground floor fenestration, corbelled and crenellated wallheads, tall coped stacks, and slate roofs.

The interior features a double-leafed, studded entrance door with applied Gothic detailing, leading to an octagonal vestibule with a lierne ribbed ceiling and central boss, and angle niches under cusped canopies. A glazed door leads to the stair hall, which has cusped detailing and a cusped fanlight. An entrance on the left of the hall opens into the billiard room.

The stairhall is lit from above by the three-storey tower. The broad staircase has a cusped moulded wooden balustrade and a compartmented boarded ceiling with armorial bosses.

The library contains a white marble chimneypiece, a later cast-iron grate, and later 19th-century bookcases.

The drawing-room has a cusped panelled dado, doors, and window shutters, all white painted with gold detailing. The original white and gold wallpaper from 1847 was reproduced and replaced in 1988. The room also features a cusped panelled white marble chimneypiece and a decorative plaster ceiling.

The boudoir, located between the drawing- and dining-rooms, is a small octagonal room retaining some of the original 1847 white and gold decoration, along with panelled fittings similar to those in the drawing-room.

The dining-room has a green and gold painted, cusped panelled dado, doors, and shutters. It also has monogrammed doors, original Celtic scrolled wallpaper (from 1847), a decorative plaster ceiling, and French windows to the garden, which were later enlarged.

On the first floor landing, an arcaded landing surrounds an open, central square balustraded void (beneath the tower), with each side supported by paired Tudor arches featuring a Tudor rose motif in the spandrels.