East Lodge, St Colme House, Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay, Fife

Description

J Maitland and Wardrop, 1870. 2 storey, 3-bay rectangular-plan gate lodge to former Donibristle Estate with advanced porch and rear outshots. Coursed stugged ashlar, droved arises, base course, mullioned windows, overhanging bracketed eaves, decorative bargeboards to all gables.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: short flight of steps to entrance; full-height gabled porch projecting at centre. Door set back behind moulded basket-arched doorpiece, window to left return. Bipartite window, consoled sloping hood to left. Canted tripartite window with side lights to right. Slightly advanced section at 1st floor above entrance, bipartite window to centre, cavetto moulding with centred decorative square motif between storeys. 1st floor tripartite window with consoled sloping hood centred above canted window to right.

S ELEVATION: tripartite window with consoled sloping hood to ground floor, tripartite 1st floor window centred above. Plain elevation of outhouse to far left.

W ELEVATION: single storey outhouse to right with adjacent service courtyard; openings to store cupboards and defunct W.C. Single storey gabled outshot to left (possibly later), gable of house set above; window to right, door to right return.

N ELEVATION: outshot to right; window at left. Central tripartite window with consoled sloping hood to ground floor of house, 1st floor tripartite window centred above.

Boarded door with decorative hinges. Stop chamfered surrounds with stone mullions to windows. Predominantly 3-pane timber sash and case windows to ground floor, 2-pane timber sash and case windows to 1st floor, lattice glazing to porch window. Decorative timber bargeboards with scrolled leaf details to steeply pitched gables with tie braces and pendants in apices, crowned by finials. Pitched grey slate roof. 2-pane rooflight to W. Off-centre shouldered, clustered, polygonal ridge stack, moulded cornice, circular clay cans. Shouldered, twin polygonal stack to W pitch of roof, moulded cornice, polygonal clay cans.

SCREEN WALLS, GATES, GATEPIERS AND RAILINGS: pair of gatepiers to entrance with pedestrian gates flanked by further gate piers, quadrant railings, reverse quadrant screen wall with terminating piers, boundary walls. Gatepiers; large droved ashlar piers, chamfered square-plan on plinths, corniced cap, finely carved urns surmounted by coronet finials. Pedestrian gates; highly decorative wrought and cast-iron gates, stylised star motif to outer-edges, guilloche detailing, large central circular design, gold painted coronet to centre, radiating spokes, some with golden spheres. Quadrant railings; ashlar coped base, stylised star motif to base of railings, decorative console bracket supports, golden painted arrowheads. Piers to screen wall as gatepiers without finial. Curved screen walls; ashlar stone, base course, moulded ashlar coping. Long boundary wall running W along High Street to Sandhaven; random rubble, slaister render, crenellated with ashlar coping. Short boundary wall running E terminating at entrance to Park Lane; same as W wall, some missing ashlar coping, (2002).

Statement of Interest

NOTES: Formerly listed as St Colme House, East Entrance. B-Group with Donibristle House, Donibristle Stables, Donibristle Chapel, Donibristle Ice-House, Donibristle Estate Boundary Wall and Fordell Railway, Dalgety Parish. Aberdour and surrounding land is divided between the old feudal estates of the Earls of Morton (Easter Aberdour) and the Earls of Moray (Wester Aberdour). East Lodge which stands in the centre of Wester Aberdour marks one of the grand entrances to the Earl of Moray's former estate at Donibristle. The Donibristle Estate was largely parkland of about 2,000 acres, central to the estate was Donibristle House, a fine 18th century mansion over-looking Donibristle Bay. The house had suffered from fire damage on a couple of occasions through its history, however in 1858 the main block of the house was completely gutted and the house was abandoned. In the late 19th century a property company renovated the service wings turning them into flats and built a new central section in the style of the old house. Despite the loss of the house the Moray interests in Fife were strong, the Fife estates (including Donibristle) comprised of about 7-8,000 acres and were very well maintained due to the great financial income that came from the Earl's Cowdenbeath and Kelty coalfields. The lodge, although being built after the fire, still reflects the wealth and status of the Moray family within the area. If the East Lodge is thought to be impressive - the West Lodge with its triumphal arch and 13 iron railings was compared equal in design and workmanship to those at Buckingham Palace (E Simpson). The pillars, gates and railings were transported from the Donibristle Estate to the principal seat of the Earl of Moray at Darnaway Castle, Morayshire in the 1950s. The East Lodge's plan and elevations are an inverted but otherwise identical version of the East Lodge at Darnaway Castle, Morayshire built in 1868. The same distinctive gatepiers and detailed wrought and cast-iron gates can be found at both. With the closure of the Fife coal mines in the 20th century, the Earls estate in Fife proved no longer feasible, therefore the majority of the Moray estate was sold in the 1960s. The lodge once stood at the head of a grand and sweeping avenue that would have led through parkland to the site where Donibristle House stood. Today (2002) the lodge and gatepiers are one of only a few reminders of the great Donibristle Estate, the avenue leads nowhere and the majority of parkland has been built upon forming the new town of Dalgety Bay. It is of interest to note that the finials to the roof have survived at the lodge in Aberdour, as with the lodge at Morayshire often the finials are lost and never replaced.

External Links

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