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Latitude: 57.6735 / 57°40'24"N
Longitude: -2.7785 / 2°46'42"W
OS Eastings: 353663
OS Northings: 865117
OS Grid: NJ536651
Mapcode National: GBR M8HF.XHP
Mapcode Global: WH7KM.9D47
Plus Code: 9C9VM6FC+CJ
Entry Name: Birkenbog House
Listing Name: Birkenbog House, Rear Walled Garden and Flanking Range
Listing Date: 22 February 1972
Category: A
Source: Historic Scotland
Source ID: 343063
Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB10586
Building Class: Cultural
ID on this website: 200343063
Location: Fordyce
County: Aberdeenshire
Electoral Ward: Banff and District
Parish: Fordyce
Traditional County: Banffshire
Tagged with: House
Probably 1730-40 wing of earlier mansion/tower house
apparently re-modelled 1795-1800 as principal dwelling after
fire. 2-storey, 5-bay house incorporating drumtower of
earlier dwelling at rear and walled garden; free standing
2-storey range at right angles to main house.
HOUSE: harled rubble, some ashlar dressings. Centre entrance
with moulded doorpiece under re-used (1693) armorial;
rectangular fanlight with decorative glazing and original
glass; double-leaf door, the present flush facing probably
masking panlling. Slightly irregular window pattern;
single window each side of doorway, 5 1st floor windows.
Irregular rear fenestration with one 1st floor window
blocked (originally lighting former parlour) and new ground
floor window. 2-storey circular drum tower at SE angle
incorporated from earlier (? tower) house. Mainly 12-pane
glazing, 9-pane in drum tower. Coped end and rear wallhead
stacks; Banffshire slate roof.
Later single storey, 2-bay kitchen wing at N gable.
INTERIOR: centre staircase in semi-circular stairwell with
plain wooden balustrade; ground and 1st floor rooms served
by long front corridors; former parlour at N (now divided)
with circa 1820 white marble chimneypiece with reeded
panelling and anthemion decoration. Simple moulded ceiling
cornice survives in corridor; raised and fielded panelled
doors and window shutters. Ground floor passage with mural
cupboard with panelled doors.
WALLED GARDEN: substantial rear rubble walled garden linked
to rear house with brick lined S aspect. Entrances each
side of house and in centre of S wall, pedestrian entrance
to garden flanking N gable of house closed with re-used
studded plank door with blacksmith wrought-iron handle and
heart shaped brackets.
OUTSIDE RANGE OF BUILDINGS: mainly 2-storey range at right
angles to house on N side of garden. Of varying builds
dating from circa 1800 or earlier. Rubble, some harling.
Centre, earliest building is 3-bay house with tooled ashlar
margins. Blocked 1st floor centre window; 16-pane glazing in
surviving 1st floor windows, varied glazing elsewhere.
Single storey former detached kitchen abuts E gable of house;
2-storey, 2-bay gig house continuous at W gable with
brick-faced segmental-headed gig house entrance and 2
1st floor windows.
Coped end stacks; Banffshire slate roofs throughout.
GATEPIERS: pair low square rubble gatepiers with shaped caps.
Birkenbog the home of the Abercrombie(y) family of
Birkenbog. In 1790-1 it was recorded that 'Sir George
Abercrombie has pulled down the old family seat and has not
yet re-built it' after destruction by fire in
1790. The drum tower at the rear was obviously part of
this 'old family seat'; so too may have been the studded
plank door closing the N entrance to the walled garden.
Re-set armorial bears the Abercrombie arms, the motto
'Merci is my desir' and the date 1693. It is said to have
come from Glassaugh (also Abercrombie).
The plan form of present house is early rather than late
18th century and may, like the more obvious drum tower,
have been a wing of the earlier mansion. As the
Abercrombies of Birkenbog inherited Forglen, near
Turriff in 1803, there was no need for a large family
mansion at Birkenbog after that date and the rehabilitation of
surviving ranges sufficed.
Double leaf panelled front door noted circa 1975 and now
possibly masked by present flush facing.
Ground floor passage mural cupboard (original to house)
similar to one at Mains of Baldavie (early-mid 18th
century), Boyndie Parish. The farm buildings, divided from
the house by road, are not included in listing.
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