Description

Late 18th century; extended and former brewhouse converted to squash court by J Donald Mills and Godfrey D B Shepherd, earlier 20th century. Asymmettrical group of buildings roughly aligned N-S to E of mansion house. Grouping comprised single storey covered standing to N, single storey and attic stable and coach house to centre and high single storey squash court to S; single storey garage adjoined to W elevation. White painted rubble, painted weather-boarding to garage, vertically boarded timber with timber-framed lattice work above to covered standing.

E ELEVATION: stable block at centre: timber boarded and glazed door off-centre to left, bipartite to left, single window to right; tile-hung hayloft dormer to centre with boarded timber door. Squash court to left with door to gable and louvred ventilator at apex. Covered standing slightly recessed to right with weatherboarding to apex of gable.

W ELEVATION:, weatherboarded garage advanced at left with large 2-leaf door to N gable and semi circular fanlight above.

Various multi-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to stable and coach house; later uPVC glazing to squash court. Pitched grey slate roofs; linear rooflights to squash court, rooflights to stable and coach house and covered standing.

INTERIOR (seen 2011): squash court has timber well stair to viewing gallery, slender steel roof trusses.

Statement of Interest

A-Group consisting of Auchterhouse Old Mansion House; Auchterhouse Dovecot; Auchterhouse Laundry; Auchterhouse Lodge and Gatepiers; Auchterhouse Stable, Coach House and Squash Court; Road Bridge over Auchterhouse Burn and Weir Adjacent to Road Bridge (see separate list entries).

This former brewhouse, stable and coach house is an important component of the Auchterhouse estate. Constructed in the mid nineteenth century the building is one of the earliest surviving ancillary buildings on the Auchterhouse estate, but which was substantially altered in the early twentieth century for use as a squash court and garage. The ancillary buildings at Auchterhouse were predominantly constructed from the late 18th to the early 20th century and as such are important in understanding the development of this estate as well as enhancing the architectural and historic setting of the Old Mansion House.

Auchterhouse was an important country seat which passed successively by marriage through the families of the Ogilvys of Airlie, Earls of Buchan, Earls of Strathmore, and returning to the Ogilvys in 1715. James Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, was the nephew of James III of Scotland, who in 1469 was given the titles of Earl of Buchan and Lord Auchterhouse.

In 1923 the property was sold to W H Valentine who made a number of alterations to the mansion house, ancillary buildings and the wider estate. The brewhouse mentioned in the Inventory of Auchterhouse is presumed to have been converted to a squash court for W H Valentine by Mills and Shepherd, a Dundee architectural practice.

Auchterhouse, Old Mansion House incorporates fragments of a 13th century castle, which was owned by Sir John Ramsey, a close associate of William Wallace. In 1308 Ramsey entertained Wallace and 300 of his followers at the property when he returned to Scotland from Flanders. The ruinous tower to the SE of the house is called Wallace Tower (Scheduled Monument), in commemoration of this visit.

Statutory address and list description revised 2012. Formerly listed as "Auchterhouse Old Mansion House Hotel Stable/Coach House/Squash Court".

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56616232

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

• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)