Description

1755, 3-storey, 5-bay house extended and altered by David
Bryce, 1860 to form mainly 3-storey, L-plan Baronial mansion.
All harled with ashlar dressings and margins.
Principal entrance in west angle of broad SW 1860 wing,
round-headed and cabled moulded with long architraved window
above, with panels above and below. SW wing rises to
4-storey, square corbelled and crenellated tower with cannon
spouts, and angle corbelled stair turret rising above
wallhead with ogee roof and weather vane. 1860 angle
bartizans with fish-scale slated conical roofs corbelled out
in upper storey each side of 1755 west gable. SE elevation
has long 1st floor tripartite (lighting drawing room) with 2
pedimented dormers breaking wallhead above.
Mainly 12-pane glazing; string course; margined and coped end
and ridge stacks; slate roofs.
Interior; principal public rooms in 1860 Bryce wing, situated
on 1st floor and reached by imposing stair case with pendant
newel and barley-sugar twist balusters. Panelled window
shutters, doors and moulded doorpieces, together with marble
chimney pieces, survive from 1860. Decorative moulded ceiling
cornices. Extensive single and 2-storey service ranges to
rear forming U-plan service court close at NW by rubble wall
and square rubble gate piers.
Walled garden; coped rubble walled garden to NE of house
with angle turret with conical roof.
Gate Lodge and Gate piers; David Bryce, dated 1860. Simple
single storey gabled gate lodge. Rubble, tooled dressings.
Gabled porch in north facing re-entrant angle with plank door
with ornate cast-iron hinges; renewed 2-pane glazing;
crowsteps; coped stacks; slate roof. Modern single storey,
single bay addition to rear (south).
High coped quadrant walls, rubble with dressed copes;
terminal piers with shallow pyramidal caps. Renewed pair
simple gate piers; pair cast-iron carriage gates; decorative
cast-iron matching spearhead railings.

Statement of Interest

"An excellent mansion house" (1813) Plaque on W side of house

reads "Aedificata 1755 Restituta 1860" Additions commissioned

by Col. K. Macleay whose monogram is above the main entrance,

and whose initials are inscribed on the gate lodge. Property

purchased by Duke of Portland 1866. Old Keiss Castle a

scheduled monument.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17830909

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

• 
  For the Record
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)