Description

Early 19th century. 2-storey, 3-bay public house with single-storey rubble wing to E, situated in rural setting. Painted and rendered. Rectangular window openings.

S (PRINCIPAL ELEVATION): public house to left. Symmetrical. Central, pedimented porch; glazed at right. Central panelled timber door, leading to 2-leaf boarded internal door. Flanking window openings. 3 window openings to upper storey lying close to wallhead. Timber inn sign to upper left. Single-storey, 2-bay wing to right.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: single central upper storey window opening to public house and long, rectangular window opening to ground at right. Thick buttresses to wing. Advanced bay buttressing 2-storey block to left.

INTERIOR: (partially seen, 2007).Original room plan thought to be largely extant with public bars to ground floor and residential accommodation above. Timber panelling to bar walls. Brick fireplaces. Bar to right with timber panelled ceiling, 1960s curved bar with brass water tap and gantry with glass shelving and drawers.

Predominantly 2-over 2-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slates to house, purple slates to wing. Brick gablehead stacks.

Statement of Interest

This is an unusual and rare survivor of a once common type of rural public house. Dating from the early part of the 19th century, it is little altered externally and the timber panelled bars form a distinctive and fine feature. The inn is situated within the village of Harrietfield and is likely to have been an integral part of the original planned village and this adds to its interest. The wing to the east is likely to have been stabling.

Country inns in Scotland often took the form, as here, of an unassuming dwelling house with the public bar within the rooms on the ground floor and accommodation for the landlord above. The advertising for these inns was often simple and unobtrusive and this is exemplified here with the small timber sign, noting DRUMTOCHTY TAVERN to the upper corner of the front elevation. Many of these inns have subsequently been altered or converted and, with little external alteration and housing a simple bar, Drumtochty Tavern is a rare survival. The bar counter is thought to have been replaced in the 1960s and the brass water tap, once a common feature in Scottish bars to use with whisky, are also becoming rare.

Harrietfield is a planned village, dating from the early part of the 19th century. The inn is situated within the core of the village and not on the main road, suggesting that is was part of the planned village and not an earlier coaching inn.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77782183

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

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2