Moncrieffe House

Moncrieffe House is a neo-Georgian country house built in 1962 for Sir William Kininmonth, designed to replicate a Classical house from 1679 that was destroyed by fire in 1957. It is prominently situated within a designed landscape at the base of Moncreiffe Hill. The house is two storeys and has a basement, arranged in a rectangular plan with seven bays. It is largely harled with contrasting raised ashlar margins, quoin strips, a deep base course, and a flat-coped blocking course; the ground floor windows have recessed aprons. A fine, channelled ashlar doorpiece, with a basket arch and fluted pilasters, marks the main entrance. The doorpiece is dated 1679 and features a heavy broken apex pediment with a relief carving of the arms of Thomas Moncreiffe and Bethia Hamilton, topped with a swagged ball finial. A conical-roofed bowed stair tower is located at the rear of the house.

The principal south elevation features a slightly recessed, tall central bay with a pavilion roof. This bay contains a two-leaf panelled timber door within the ashlar doorpiece, above which is a single window and a relief-carved panel. The fenestration is regular on either side, with taller ground floor windows. Shallow, plain recessed panels are positioned above the window bays at the wallhead. A modern timber conservatory has been added adjoining a screen wall to the outer left. The rear, or north, elevation includes a glazed door below a large stair window in the bowed central bay. Harled rubble walls and ancillary buildings are found to the east.

The windows are timber sash and case with multi-pane glazing, and there are also some French doors. The roofs are piended and slate-covered, with two solar panels added around 1980 to the south side. Coped harled stacks are present.

The interior is well-detailed, with simple plasterwork cornices and panels, architraved doorways with six-panelled timber doors, brass door furniture, and fireplaces throughout. A screen door provides access to a fine stairhall with side doors set in arched recesses, a fireplace, and an imposing cantilevered staircase. The staircase has scrolled ironwork balustrades and a timber handrail that follows the curve of the stair tower. The drawing room to the east features arched niches flanking the centre fireplace, and a vaulted-effect suspended ceiling. The dining room to the west appears to be oval in shape, with a concave-curved inner wall and curved suspended ceilings. A smaller room to the northeast has a vaulted ceiling.

The property is enclosed by harled rubble walls, and there are also ancillary buildings and large, flat-coped, square-section ashlar gatepiers with timber gates to the northwest.