Ardvorlich House

Ardvorlich House

Ardvorlich has been the residence of the Stewart Family since the 16th century. The present house, built in 1790 by Robert Ferguson, represents a good example of a medium-sized formal 18th-century house, probably incorporating fabric from an earlier castle. Substantial additions were made throughout the 19th century.

The house consists of a three-bay, two-storey central block with a central attic gablet. The front (south) elevation features a small corner turret to the left and a substantial gable-fronted addition to the right. One to two-storey wings project northwards around a courtyard, which is closed by a low single-storey range. To the rear of the main block stands a square tower with a high piended roof.

An earlier stone castle appears not to have been fully demolished when the present house was constructed. The external walls of the 1790 block, judging by their size, appear to derive from the earlier structure.

The central three bays form the core of the 1790 house, which was modest in size and symmetrical, featuring a small finalled central attic gablet containing a Venetian window. An early 19th-century painting shows this house with urn finials to the corners; these urns are probably those now found on the gatepiers of the North Gate. A number of later additions were made throughout the 19th century. The northwest wing, consisting of a single storey over basement block with a crowstepped nebs gable decorated with a stepped corbel table, was added in 1839 and is dated with the initials RS. The northeast wing, slightly later (1840s?), is more modest, featuring timber gabled dormers. In 1890, more substantial alterations were carried out by C and L Ower of Dundee, including the crowstep-gabled east wing with a tripartite window on the ground floor and a bipartite window above. At this time the corner turrets on the west elevation and the rear tower were also built. A small stone porch was added to the front elevation, and the small dormers on the front elevation likely also belong to this period.

The interior retains a number of notable features, although little is of 18th-century date. These include timber joinery, four-panel doors, plasterwork cornices, and timber and marble fireplaces. The main stair features barleytwist timber balusters.

Materials comprise squared rubble with pinnings and cherry cocking to the 1790 house, and rubble with sandstone dressings to the later additions. Roofs are of graded grey slate with corniced stone stacks and clay cans. The house has timber sash and case windows: 12-pane to the 1790 block, 12 lying-pane to the northwest and northeast blocks, and plate glass with 12-pane to the 1890 southeast block.

Ardvorlich was fictionalised as Darnlinvarach Castle in Walter Scott's 'A Legend of Montrose'.

The house is listed as part of a group with Ardvorlich Stables and Farm, Walled Garden, Gates, and the Bridge over Ardvorlich Burn.