Invercauld House

Invercauld House

Invercauld House is a Scots Baronial mansion of 17th-century origins, extensively remodelled and expanded over subsequent centuries with major work dating from 1750, 1820, 1847, 1875 and 1890. The building was substantially remodelled in 1875 by the London architect J T Wimperis.

The main house is a 3-storey and attic structure of extended Z-plan form, constructed in coursed pink and grey granite with crow-stepped gables. It features multiple gables and turrets, and forms an open courtyard to the north. The dominant architectural feature is a large 6-storey castellated square tower on the north elevation. At the southeast corner stands a square single-storey corbelled and crenellated entrance porch with a pyramid roof, Tudor arched entrance and a very battered base course.

The elevations are asymmetrical and complex. The south elevation includes a 3-bay bowed wing with corbelled, stepped and castellated parapet topped with candle-snuffer-roof bartizans. To the east is a 2-storey polygonal section with a piended roof. A 5-bay recessed wing extends to the left with 2-storey and attic accommodation. The west elevation comprises a 3-storey and attic 5-bay wing with an off-centre recessed bay containing a single-storey crenellated entrance porch flush to the wall.

Architectural details include corbelled and crenellated parapets with candle-snuffer-roof turrets, small gabled roof dormers with pinnacles, and predominantly plate glass timber sash-and-case windows. The roofing comprises grey slate with gable and ridge stacks.

Interior

The interior features a complex plan with outstanding public rooms and abundant original features. A broad, shallow-tread timber entrance stair, finely detailed with carved lions to the newels, provides access to principal rooms. The drawing room contains a plaster strapwork ceiling with decorative cornicing and a large white painted Gothic-style chimneypiece with matching overmantle and Gothic architrave. The dining room is timber panelled with a segmental arch stone chimneypiece. The library contains a classical-style timber chimneypiece and overmantle with integral wall-height timber bookcases. The hall features a timber Jacobean chimneypiece decorated with obelisk carving and stained glass bearing the Farquharson crest. Throughout the house are numerous simple timber classical chimneypieces, working shutters and decorative cornicing.

Ancillary Structures

Butler's House forms a U-plan arrangement with the Secretary's Flat to its north. The Butler's House presents a 2-storey, 3-bay west elevation with a slightly advanced central gable. It is distinguished by tall gable diamond stacks with coped skews and rectangular coped skewputts. The Secretary's Flat is a 2-storey, 3-bay structure.

The Game Larder is a single-storey square-plan building with basement, situated to the north of the house within the courtyard. It features a chamfered corner with slated buttresses and is rendered in painted harl with granite dressings. A pyramidal roof with deep bracketed eaves crowns the structure, accessed by a raised entrance reached via later metal steps. The interior was not seen.

The Kennels form a simple single-storey weatherboarded building with an open porch supported by rustic timber columns and a small yard.

The Dairy is a square-plan structure rendered in white painted harl with a pyramidal roof and tall louvered vent at the apex. It has deep bracketed eaves, a 4-panelled timber door and narrow windows, some finished with fish-scale pattern slates.

A cottage to the south of the dairy is a single-storey, 3-bay structure. It features a large polygonal central entrance porch to the east with a pyramidal bell-cast roof crowned by a decorative ball-finialled louvred flèche. The entrance door is a 6-panel timber piece set within a corniced and consoled classical doorpiece. Windows are bipartite with timber mullions and transoms.

A further ancillary structure is a low single-storey weatherboarded gabled building with 6-pane top-hopper windows and a glazed pediment above.