Dinnet House

This is a two- and three-storey Baronial mansion, built in 1890 by Marshall Mackenzie, and situated on high ground within extensive grounds overlooking the River Dee. The design incorporates crenellated round and square towers, shaped and crowstepped gables, and a mix of tripartite, square-plan, and oriel windows. The exterior is granite, featuring Aberdeen bond masonry and bull-faced margins, with a deep base course and mutuled cornices to the towers. Architectural features include relieving arches, timber transoms and mullions (stone mullions appearing in the tripartite, oriel, and tower windows), and a Tudor-arched polished granite doorpiece that was originally a window.

The north-west elevation has nine bays, with a broad, two-leaf panelled timber door leading to a four-stage square entrance tower located to the right of centre. To the left of the tower are three stories of regularly fenestrated bays, including a gabled bay with a Tudor-arched window (originally a door) at ground level and an oriel window above. A shaped gable with a square-plan window, featuring gablehead arrowslits, is beyond this, followed by a round tower at the outer left. A tall, slender four-stage tower is positioned within the re-entrant angle to the right of the entrance tower, with lower bays on the far right.

The windows are timber sash and case with plate glass glazing. The roof is slate, including decorative banded fish scale slates. The chimneys have coped ashlar stacks, and there are ashlar-coped skews. The downpipes are cast iron with decorative rainwater hoppers and fixings.

The interior retains a good decorative scheme, including moulded cornices, classical chimneypieces, servants bells and six-panel timber doors. An open-well staircase has timber column-on-vase balusters and dado timber panelling. The morning room features oak panelling with decorative fluted pilasters (supplied by Wearing & Ghyllie, London in 1890), a stone fireplace, and a dentilled cornice. The drawing room contains finely detailed Adam-style plasterwork and a matching marble chimneypiece. The hall boasts a green and white marble floor.

The west wing was reduced from three storeys and an attic to a single storey in 1976. Marshall Mackenzie & Son restored the top two floors and added the square entrance tower between 1905 and 1911, following a fire. George Angus Mitchell made alterations circa 1920-25.

The terraced garden features fine crenellated terrace walls to the south and east.