Dovecot, Grange Hall

Probably dating to 1805, this is a two-story, hexagonal dovecot situated at Grange Hall, which itself was built on an earlier site in 1805. The dovecot has pigeon accommodation in the upper story and is constructed of pinned rubble with tooled ashlar dressings. Ground floor doorways are located on the east and west faces, leading into demi-octagonal chambers. A central entrance on the first floor has a cill with seating, originally intended for attaching a removable ladder to access the first floor pigeon loft. A continuous rat course and alighting ledge encircles the dovecot at the upper stage, projecting as curved ledges in front of groups of four flight-holes. These flight-holes are pierced through semi-circular ashlar panels set within blind lunettes in the southwest, south, and southeast facets of the building. The roof is piended and octagonal, covered in slate, and terminates with an apex ashlar mushroom-shaped finial topped by a weathercock, which is currently in poor condition.

Inside, an incomplete set of wooden nesting boxes lines the interior of the dovecot. The ground floor rooms may have been used as hen houses. The combination of pigeon and hen house within a single building represents a common, later development of dovecots as farm buildings. The dovecot was likely constructed around 1805 as part of a design aiming to provide “the neat accommodation for all the exigencies of a large establishment.” Further information is available in W Leslie's General View of the Agriculture of the Counties of Nairn and Moray (1813), Robert Douglas’ The Dovecotes of Moray (1931), and Elizabeth Beaton’s The Doocots of Moray (1978).