Description

Built circa 1760. Medium-scale Palladian mansion,

rectangular-plan, 3 storeys with sunk basement and roof

balustrade. 3-bay front and rear elevations, 5-bay flanks, lightly-droved red ashlar, polished dressings and continuous

cill band at 1st floor. E front: recessed distyle in antis

Doric porch, architraved door with traceried fanlight;

similarly proportioned tripartite above, inner light consoled

and pedimented, outer 1st floor windows each with consoled

cornice; 2nd floor windows in double-lugged architraves

(ground floor windows in double-lugged margins); angles

channelled at ground. Unmargined windows to other elevations:

continuous blocked cornice. Corniced stacks; piended

shallow-pitch slate roof concealed by parapet.

Low lean-to addition to rear (W) blocks original door;

louvered timber game store nearby.

INTERIOR: tripartite plan, and largely intact; some refitting

early 19th century; rear service rooms altered circa 1938 by

M Purdon Smith. Doric screen in entrance hall, cantilevered

stair beyond with cupola and with early 19th century

cast-iron balustrade. 18th and early 19th century

chimneypieces; some good cornice plasterwork, particularly in

large drawing room; long gallery full length of top floor

fitted out mid 19th century (?by John Starforth) for library

of William Bell MacDonald.

Statement of Interest

Built for Dr James Mounsey, physician to Empress Elizabeth of

Russia.

Mounsey bought Rammerscales in 1758, and returned to Scotland

in 1762. Estate sold by Mounsey's daughters to James Bell;

family now Bell-MacDonald.

Comparable recessed porch at Knockhill House in Hoddom Parish

dated 1777.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Rammerscales House official website
• Wikidata Q17571362

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)