Castlemains Farmhouse, Auchterarder

Overview

Castlemains Farmhouse is a substantial later 19th century Scots Baronial-style farmhouse located on the north side of Auchterarder. It incorporates an earlier 19th century farmhouse and stands alongside a detached castellated building that contains some fabric from the medieval Auchterarder Castle. The buildings occupy the site where Auchterarder Castle once stood before its demolition. As of 2019, the farmhouse and castellated building are partly surrounded by 21st century housing development.

The Farmhouse

The farmhouse is a six-bay, two-storey building constructed of light brown sandstone rubble with pale sandstone ashlar dressings, quoins, skews and chimney stacks. The earlier eastern portion has a symmetrical three-bay south front featuring a shallow pedimented door piece and a central nepus chimney gable. A partially surviving date stone reads [18]25 (the 18 no longer legible).

To the left is a three-bay addition with a full-height advanced gable at the third bay, added when the house was remodelled in a restrained Scots Baronial revival style in 1889. The projecting gable incorporates canted windows at ground and first floors, a carved panel bearing the date 1889 and a large 'M' (for Malcolm), a moulded skew cornice and a ball finial. The two bays to the left of the gable have pyramidal-roofed dormer windows breaking the eaves. To the rear (north) of the earlier part of the house is a rounded stair outshot with a baronial tower addition, likely added when the house was enlarged in 1889. The rear of the 1889 portion has a single storey outshot with a piended roof.

The windows are predominantly timber sash and case frames, with those in the 1825 house having a 12-pane glazing pattern. Gable end and ridge chimney stacks are present, and the roofs are covered with overlapping grey slate. The rainwater goods are predominantly cast iron.

Interior

Much of the 19th century interior scheme survives from both phases of construction, as seen in 2019. The earlier part of the house contains a curved stone staircase with a moulded timber handrail and decorative cast iron bannisters. The eastern-most ground floor room has a large black marble fireplace.

Two large rooms within the 1889 addition feature compartmentalised ceilings, canted window bays with timber panelling, and distinctive moulded cornicing with floral motifs. The house contains at least five carved timber fireplaces of various designs, some with decorative tile inlay and wrought iron grates. Doors are mostly timber panelled with moulded architraves. Timber panelling is present in some hallways and bathrooms. The roof structure of the earlier section has half-timber joists and hand-sawn timber boards of early 19th century character.

The Castellated Building (Auchterarder Castle)

The castellated building is a single-storey, square-plan structure located to the west of the farmhouse. It is likely positioned on the site of Auchterarder Castle and includes a thick fragment of rubble wall projecting at the southwest corner, thought to belong to the earlier castle. The thinner walls incorporate a moulded arch doorway, two moulded arch windows, a vertical keyhole gunloop, and stone corbels at the roof line. A rubble fore-stair on the southeast side provides access to a roof-top viewing platform with metal handrail.

The interior, as seen in 2018, is a single room with no fittings or fixtures. Exposed metal supporting straps are visible on the underside of the concrete or cement roof and at some of the openings. Remnants of a timber door frame and timber window frames survived as of 2019. A worn stone fragment depicting a warrior and chariot (of unknown origin but thought to be 17th century) was set into the wall at the top of the viewing platform stair according to Ross (1902). This stone was not seen during visits in 2018 and 2019.

Historical Development

Castlemains occupies the site of Auchterarder Castle to the north of the town. Auchterarder Castle is traditionally associated with King Malcolm III. Historical records indicate that Edward I stayed at Auchterarder Castle during his invasion of Scotland in 1296. Timothy Pont's late 16th century map of Lower Glen Almond (Pont 21) appears to show Auchterarder Castle as a four-storey tower house.

The First Statistical Account of Scotland (1792) states that a tenant farmer was allowed to use stone from the castle (and wood from the associated copse) to build a farmhouse. A report on the Barony of Auchterarder prepared for the Commissioners of Annexed Estates for 1765-6 notes the construction of a 'very good farm house' at Castlemains by James Barnet (Wills, 1973, p.69).

Castlemains became the property of farmer John Malcolm (1770-1850) after the lands were disposed of by Lord Perth in 1784 (Reid, 1899). The obituary of John Malcolm's grandson, who died at Castlemains in 1931, refers to the Malcolms as a well-known Perthshire family having been associated with the district since 1700 (Dundee Evening Telegraph, 1931).

The earlier part of the present house at Castlemains has a date stone of [18]25. This section is representative of the type of farmhouse associated with earlier 19th century Improvement farming in Scotland, when farm buildings were laid out around the farmhouse within a courtyard plan. The 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1860) shows the footprint of the earlier farmhouse with rounded stair outshot to the rear, offices adjoining to the west (including a circular horse-mill), and further outbuildings to the north surrounding a farm court.

While the farm appears to have been known as Castlemains throughout the 19th century, the house itself is referred to as 'Auchterarder Castle' in various documents, registers and newspaper reports. The Perth Post Office Directory of 1872, for example, includes 'Auchterarder Castle' as the Malcolm residence in its list of 'Noblemen and Gentlemen's Seats' in the area. The house was enlarged and remodelled in the Baronial style in 1889. The footprint of the enlarged farmhouse, with its advancing gable to the south front, is depicted on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map (revised 1899).

The square-plan castellated building has a section of thick walling to the southwest. The New Statistical Account of Scotland states in reference to the castle that "the walls of the remaining corner are 9 feet thick and cemented firmly" (New Statistical Account, 1845). This wall is likely the only element of the former castle on the site to survive in-situ, although a precise date of construction cannot be given.

While the building date(s) for the later parts of the castellated building are uncertain, the Perth and Kinross volume of the Buildings of Scotland suggests a mid-19th century date (Gifford, p.173). The 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map (1860) shows a small square-plan structure labelled 'remains of castle' with a projection to the southwest corner, likely representing the thick section of earlier wall. The 2nd edition map (1899) includes an outshot on the southeast side of the building, probably being the rubble fore-stair added to allow access to the roof platform.

Robert Butter became master of Castlemains through marriage in 1858. By the end of the century his son, John Butter-Malcolm (1860-1931), had established a successful poultry farm at Castlemains. The Dundee Courier reported that the poultry farm was "one of the largest and best equipped in Scotland". The report also describes the incubating room as "a modern addition built onto the old castle in the courtyard of the farm" (Dundee Courier, 1903).

The farmhouse changed hands, or was leased to tenants, after John Butter-Malcolm's death in 1931. Some of the steading buildings were developed into a large house known as Castlemains Farm Steading in 1995. The castellated building appears to have been used as a storage building in more recent years. There is significant ivy growth and other vegetation across the roof. The farmhouse and associated outbuildings have been unoccupied for a number of years (2019).