Old Parish Manse And Offices, Kirkton Of Glenbuchat

Old Parish Manse and Offices, Kirkton of Glenbuchat

A former manse dating from around 1785 and later, built as a 2-storey building with attic storey. The house is arranged irregularly on plan with 4 bays on its principal front, and features some stone-pedimented dormers. The walls are constructed of roughly coursed rubble with large squared rubble quoins, and harled (roughcast) to the rear.

The south-facing principal elevation displays 4 symmetrically-fenestrated bays with a 2-bay gable at the right end and a 20th century dormer window above the left bay. The west entrance elevation is dominated by an asymmetrically-fenestrated gable set back to the right, with a projecting lower gable of the original manse at the left incorporating a stone-pedimented dormer window on its return to the right. The east elevation is plainer, with 2 bays and a single-storey flat-roofed porch at the right end.

The windows are predominantly 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case frames. The roof is covered in grey slates with coped squared rubble and harled chimney stacks, some of polygonal form, and ashlar-coped skews.

Internally, the original kitchen contains a deep niche and salt box (or possibly salt box) adjacent to a former fireplace opening. The east wing retains some moulded cornicing and a comb ceiling. Most original fixtures were removed in the 1980s, though some timber shutters were retained and later supplemented by reinstated fireplaces and shutters.

To the south-west stands a former stable and bothy, now altered with garage openings and a corrugated roof.

The manse sits within a group that includes the Category A-listed Old Parish Church and Category B-listed graveyard. It represents a notable example of a late 18th century vernacular manse. The original building was probably a modest rectangular structure with striking pedimented dormers overlooking the south garden, facing the church to the north. A large rectangular-plan gabled wing was added to the south before the first Ordnance Survey map, followed by further enlargement to the east with another gabled rectangle. Extensive offices once formed a courtyard to the west, with a fine kitchen garden beyond overlooking the old road running immediately south of the settlement. The Old Statistical Account notes that the kirk manse and offices were "lately rebuilt", whilst the New Statistical Account records the glebe as worth about £10 annually and the manse as "in excellent condition".

Threatened with demolition in 1974, the building was sold and converted to flats before being returned to a single house in the 1980s. The current owner has held it since 1996 and undertaken renovation with careful reinstatement of traditional features over the past decade. The listing category was changed from B to C(S) in 2006.