Description

Early 19th century with pediment from earlier house dated 1678. 2-storey, 3-bay rectangular-plan farmhouse with smaller 2-storey, single bay piend-roofed extension to W and small single storey extension to E. Harled with droved and painted margins, base course.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: door at centre with 10-pane fanlight, doorway with console brackets supporting cavetto corniced canopy. Windows in flanking bays and further window in recessed extension to outer left; regular windows at 1st floor.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: window to right of centre and inset curvilinear pediment dated 1678 at apex over panel with inscribed initials AO EW above ribbon border enclosing initials AO SM to left of centre. Narrow window to left with adjacent window beyond; 1st floor with large stair window to left of centre and windows in flanking bays: door to outer right in recessed extension with window above.

E ELEVATION: small piend-roofed extension with timber door on return to N and window on return to S.

W ELEVATION: extension with glazed door to right and 2 windows to left at ground, window to right and left at 1st floor.

4-, 12- and 15-pane glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates with coped ashlar skews, ashlar coped stacks, polygonal cans and thackstanes.

INTERIOR: principal original fireplaces removed but replaced with Lorimeresque timber surrounds over brick inserts. Some plain cornicing, water-leaf ceiling rose and radial-astragalled fanlight. 1st floor room with bolection moulded chimneypiece inscribed with entwined initials AO SM.

OUTBUILDING AND BOUNDARY WALLS: pantiled rubble outbuilding with ashlar coped skews and stacks, converted for garaging and storage. Coped random rubble boundary walls.

Statement of Interest

Blyth reports the establishment of the family at Orrock prior to 1233, with the family motto of "Solus Christus mea Rupes" (Christ alone my rock) part of which was still discernible on the old pediment in 1948. In 1458 the Abbot of Dunfermline granted a charter to David de Orrock confirming his possession of Orrock, Sillibabie and Dunearn. Alexander Orrock (of Sillibawbie) became mint master for Scotland in 1538. The barony was finally sold in the 18th century when the family removed to Aberdeenshire where they renamed their land Orrock.

The 2 sets of initials inscribed on the early pediment are thought to belong to the twice married Alexander Orrock; EW, Elizabeth Wemyss and the SM combination also appearing internally possibly belonging to Sophia Maria of Wemyss.

Snoddy reports that, "the lands of Orrock afford British diamonds of several colours naturally cut into angles, some of four, some of six...".

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17794013

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

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)