Description

Mid 18th century, restored 1981. Unusual, tall, square-plan, single chamber dovecot with voussoired segmentally-arched window, alighting ledge/string course close to eaves below row of flight holes and ball-finialled, slated, piended roof (see Notes). Roughly squared and snecked pink granite rubble with squared rubble quoins.

Statement of Interest

An unusual survival, this fine dovecot is sited close to the ruins of the House of Leask. Niven notes that the dovecot was re-roofed and newly finialled in the 19th century, at which time the roof was conical and the slating banded. The early 18th century House of Leask was renamed Gordon Lodge when Barbara Cuming married Dr Alexander Gordon of Hilton and Straloch, a descendant of the Gordons of Pitlurg in Banffshire. Their grandson subsequently named the house Pitlurg. In 1825 Captain Gordon Cumming Skene commissioned Archibald Simpson to rebuild the old house, returning to the original name of House of Leask for the new building. This house, burned down in 1927, but had incorporated a simple 2-storey, 5-bay Italianate south front, 3-bay bow between slightly advanced end bays on the west and a wing to the northeast.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17779096

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

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)