Historic houses · South East England
Cairness House
Cairness House, 4.5 miles (7 km) south-east of Fraserburgh in Buchan in the county of Aberdeenshire, is a country house built in the Neoclassical style between 1791 and 1797 to designs by architect Ja
JThomas — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence
Plan your visit
- Typical visit
- 1 h–2 h
- Family-friendly
- Limited wheelchair access
About
Cairness House, 4.5 miles (7 km) south-east of Fraserburgh in Buchan in the county of Aberdeenshire, is a country house built in the Neoclassical style between 1791 and 1797 to designs by architect James Playfair. It replaced an earlier house of 1781 by Robert Burn, which was in part incorporated into the Playfair scheme. Sir John Soane assisted in the final stages of the construction after Playfair's death in 1794. The park was laid out by Thomas White, a follower of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. The Pevsner Architectural Guide for Aberdeenshire North and Moray states that "Cairness House, by James Playfair 1791-97, is of international importance as the only house in Britain, the design and construction of which reflected and evolved with the rapid advances in French Neoclassicism towards the end of the C18" and that "its survival is the more precious as so many of Playfair's other designs were either not built or have been lost or altered".
Photo gallery
From the Wikipedia article
Cairness House, 4.5 miles (7 km) south-east of Fraserburgh in Buchan in the county of Aberdeenshire, is a country house built in the Neoclassical style between 1791 and 1797 to designs by architect James Playfair. It replaced an earlier house of 1781 by Robert Burn, which was in part incorporated into the Playfair scheme. Sir John Soane assisted in the final stages of the construction after Playfair's death in 1794. The park was laid out by Thomas White, a follower of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. The Pevsner Architectural Guide for Aberdeenshire North and Moray states that "Cairness House, by James Playfair 1791-97, is of international importance as the only house in Britain, the design and construction of which reflected and evolved with the rapid advances in French Neoclassicism towards the end of the C18" and that "its survival is the more precious as so many of Playfair's other designs were either not built or have been lost or altered".
Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.
Background
History
Cairness House was commissioned by Charles Gordon of Cairness and Buthlaw, a descendant of the Barclays of Cairness through his mother. The house was part of a 9000 acre estate that included the village of St Comb's and the Loch of Strathbeg. The second laird, Major-General Thomas Gordon (1788–1841), a good friend of Lord Byron, was a hero of the Greek War of Independence and wrote a celebrated history of the conflict. The Gordon family sold the estate in 1937 to the Countess of Southesk. During the Second World War, the house was rented to the Consolidated Pneumatic Tool Company of Fraserburgh as evacuation premises for their London head office. After the war, the house was used as a…
Architecture
Considered one of the finest examples of Neoclassical architecture in Britain, Cairness House shows the influence of the French architects Étienne-Louis Boullée and Claude Nicholas Ledoux and has many parallels with the works of Sir John Soane. The design incorporates a complex mixture of Masonic and pagan symbols as well as many numerological and architectural conceits. It is a calendar house, and its ground plan shows an adjoining "C" and "H", variously standing for Cairness House and Charles Gordon. Constructed in finely detailed granite ashlar, Cairness House consists of a 110 ft main block, flanked by two raised "bookend" wings. A tetrastyle pedimented Roman Doric porch sits at the…
Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Coordinates
- 57.6382, -1.9375
- District
- Aberdeenshire
- Postcode
- AB43 8UJ
- Parliamentary constituency
- Aberdeenshire North and Moray East
Sources
- wikipedia: Cairness House (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Frequently asked questions
- Where is Cairness House?
- Cairness House is in South East England, in the United Kingdom — coordinates 57.6382°, -1.9375°.
- Is Cairness House wheelchair accessible?
- Partially — OpenStreetMap notes limited wheelchair access at Cairness House. Check ahead for specific facilities.