Old Leckie

Old Leckie is a 3-storey crowstepped laird's house with attic, dating from around 1530–1570, situated on large policies near the Old Leckie Bridge (a scheduled monument) a few miles west of Stirling in the Forth Valley. It is a fine example of the transitional style from Scottish defensive castle to domestic mansion.

The building forms a T-plan, with a projecting 4-storey south wing. The main entrance stands in the south elevation, set within a deep segmental arch, with a 3-stage steeply conical-capped corbelled stair turret above the door in the south-east re-entrant, complete with a spyhole at ground level and a gunloop to the right of the dominant 2-bay gable. A narrow full-height stair tower occupies the south-west re-entrant. The ground floor is vaulted. The building is harled with ashlar margins to the east door and adjacent window, and features a corbel course. The south entrance elevation shows a centre window abutting the corbel course, a small door in a set-back bay to the left, and two vertically-aligned windows high up to the left. Gabled outer elevations face east and west, with a gablehead to the north, all displaying asymmetrical fenestration. Multi-pane timber sash-and-case windows predominate. The building is covered with small grey slates, has harled, coped and shouldered gablehead stacks, and ashlar-coped skews and skewputts.

The interior contains fine decorative detail including moulded cornices and timberwork. The vaulted ground floor has a reinstated inner dining room wall with a stepped cill at a high centre viewing window. The first floor timber-panelled hall, reinstated from three partitioned rooms, features a monumental stone chimneypiece with plain lintel and cornice on short half-columns, full-height panelling with shutters and 6-panelled doors. An eastern staircase with decorative timber balustrade (salvaged from a Campbeltown distillery warehouse floor) complements a turnpike stair in the south-west re-entrant. The Green Room to the west retains 1660 panelling and formerly had three windows to the north (now two), with a timber fire surround and frieze from Edinburgh over the door. A bedroom has its east wall moved slightly westward to accommodate an ensuite while retaining the original garderobe. The study contains a large stone fireplace on half-columns (uncovered during restoration) with small side windows added in the 1970s.

The property includes coped rubble garden walls with pedestrian gateways, a 17th-century sundial within the policies, early 19th-century courtyard offices, and the remains of a large walled garden. A notable Tropaeolum, documented in Sir Herbert Maxwell's Scottish Gardens of 1908, still flourishes on the site.

The lands of Leckie belonged to the same family from as early as the 14th century. The building was previously thought to date from the late 17th century, but the 1530–1570 dating has been established through identification of similar masons' marks found at Stirling Castle and Mar's Walk. In 1668, Leckie was lost over debts to David Moir, a clerk in Stirling. A later Moir was a staunch Jacobite, and on 13 September 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie spent the night in what is now the Green Room. His son married the daughter of Stewart of Ardshiel, who had been born in a cottage or cave in 1746 after Redcoats destroyed Ardshiel. New Leckie (now Watson House, separately listed) was built in 1829 a short distance to the east, displaying Stewart arms. The Younger family, brewers of Alloa, purchased Leckie in 1906; the current owner's father inherited in 1946. Old Leckie had fallen into disrepair and ruin but was sympathetically restored in the early 1970s.

Restoration work removed an 18th-century east wing and small piend-roofed first-floor porch, returning the building to its original plan form. Plans dated 1793 and signed by Joseph Bowes, Architect, are retained at the house. The hall was reinstated by removing partition walls and exposing the monumental fireplace. The lower panelling was salvaged from the demolished east wing and may date from 1748; it is thought to have come from America. The upper panelling is made from salvaged timber from a Campbeltown distillery warehouse, as is the balustrade for the east stair.