Description

Originally: designed by William Adam carried out with detail alterations and sculpture by John Baxter, 1731-6.

Centre block. 77' square 3-storey ashlar granite with quoin angles: 7-window facades E & W., astylar, that on W. has centre 3 slightly advanced and pedimented with urns, piend roof with parapet. 24' radius quadrants to 2-storey quoined rubble-built wings, 5-window to front and court. 1st floor of wings heightened 1780; 1st floor of quadrants probably of same date (evidence of having been heightened twice).

Internal alterations (including replacement of staircase from 1st to 2nd floor) and E. external stairs Archibald Simpson 1822. Kitchen court with entrance archway and cupola alterations to wings, J. & W. Smith 1843. Large aisleless early decorated chapel with wooden barrel roof, vaulted ante-chapel and stair to 1st floor of N. wing G.E. Street 1876-81.

Porch and colonnade with red granite R-doric columns on W. elevation (replacing original curved stairs to 1st) on W. elevation, bay windows N. & S. centres of main block, new internal staircase from ground to 1st and general replanning of main floor, renewal of chimneys, rebuilding of kitchen court arch (retaining cupola) and rebuilding of S. side of kitchen court as nursery wing (demolished after fire damage 1930) C. E. Wardrop of Wardrop and Reid 1879-81 with fine neo-Adam interior work by Wright and Mansfield of London.

Of the Adam-Baxter interior work the old 1st floor centre W. entrance hall survives with addition of 1845 bust of Queen Victoria by Baron Marochetti, and of Simpson's the staircase.

Statement of Interest

Note:- Hussey does not seem to be right in thinking that the house was built with parapets. They do not appear to the engraving in the General View of Aberdeenshire (1811) nor in the estate plan 1815. At these dates a central cupola is also shown: the quadrants had been raised to 2-storey but not to their present height.

The 1815 plan also shows W. forecourt gates (see item 20). The parapets appear in a photograph of 1860 by which date the Quadrants had been raised to their present height; and the original W. stairs had been rebuilt with 3 arches instead of the original 2 windows and centre door. These alterations were probably Simpson the Smith work at Haddo is mentioned in his obituary and also in the A.P.S.D. but which Haddo is not specified.

Haddo (Forgue) was also recast c. 1835. However the drawings for the kitchen court and cupola (which Hussey thought c. 1780) appear to be Smith draughtsmanship and calligraphy.

The laundry and several of the lodges are also suggestive of their hand.

The chapel is affiliated to the Scottish Episcopal Church.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17568527

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)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)