East Cottage, 3-5 Bush Cottages, Glen Tanar House, Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside, Aberdeenshire

Description

1-2 BUSH COTTAGES:

Late 19th century. 2-storey and basement, 4-bay, rectangular-plan pair of semi-detached cottages. Coursed tooled pink granite rubble with long and short dressings. Strip quoins.

SE ELEVATION: symmetrical; M-gables to centre 2 bays, regular fenestration to centre to bays of ground floor, flanked to left and right by boarded timber door with decorative glazed panel, window set in each gablehead; window to bay to outer left and outer right; flat-roofed dormer to bays to outer left and right of attic floor. 2 satellite dishes.

NE ELEVATION: not seen 1998.

NW ELEVATION: predominantly obscured by boundary wall (see below); boarded timber doors to basement; bay to centre advanced; 2 horizontally boarded lean-to timber additions on stilts to attic floor.

SW ELEVATION: blank.

Modern timber glazing with tape astragals between panes. Piended grey slate roof with slate ridge. Coped granite wallhead and ridge stacks with circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: not seen 1998.

3-5 BUSH COTTAGES:

George Truefitt, circa 1885. Single storey and attic, 4-bay pair of cottages with single bay turreted cottage and 2-bay link. Coursed granite rubble with ladder snecking and cherry-cocking; finely finished margins. Sloping rough-faced cills; long and short quoins; timber bargeboards.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: near-symmetrical pair of cottages to right, tripartite windows to centre to bays at ground floor, gableted timber dormers to attic floor above, 2 wallhead stacks between centre bays and outer bays; bays to outer left and right gabled, regular fenestration to ground and attic floors. Single storey link recessed to left with lean-to to bay to right and glazed timber door to bay to left. Turreted cottage advanced to outer left, gabled bay with bipartite oriel window, window to right return; circular tower to re-entrant angle to right, band of round-arched windows, stone eaves course, decorative fishscale banded roof with iron finial to apex.

NE ELEVATION: symmetrical; 3-bay; granite porch with open front advanced to centre of ground floor, windows to left and right returns, glazed panelled timber door; regular fenestration to flanking bays to left and right; rooflight off-centre to left of attic floor. Single storey, single bay, piend-roofed building adjoining to outer right with glazed boarded timber door off-centre to right.

NW ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 4-bay pair of cottages to left, advanced lean-tos at 2 centre bays, gabled bays to left and right; ground floor of bay to left obscured by single storey piend-roofed addition with door to right return, window set in gablehead; ground floor of bay to right advanced with bipartite window , window to right return, window set in gablehead of attic floor. Single storey link to right, bipartite window to left, 3 windows to right. Turreted cottage adjoining to outer right, single gabled bay, bipartite window to ground floor, window to attic floor, piend-roofed timber dormer to left return.

SW ELEVATION: boarded timber opening off-centre to right.

Predominantly modern timber casement and sash and case windows, tape astragals between panes of windows to No 3. Piended graded grey slate roof with lead ridges; fishscale banded roof to turreted cottage. Corniced granite wallhead stacks with circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: not seen 1998.

KENNELS:

George Truefitt, circa 1885. Single storey and attic, 3-bay kennel and cottage block. Rough-faced, squared and snecked pink and grey granite, finely finished to margins. Strip quoins; sloping cills; crowstepped gable; overhanging eaves.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: near-symmetrical; gabled bay advanced to centre, window to centre of ground floor advanced in flat-roofed, corniced porch surmounted by iron railings forming balcony, doorway to left return, windows flanking to left and right; glazed timber door flanked by 2 narrow single pane windows set in gablehead; piend-roofed timber dormer to left return at attic floor. Porch to re-entrant angle to left, panelled timber door and letterbox fanlight. Tripartite window to bay to left; bay to right obscured by railings.

NE AND NW ELEVATIONS: not seen 1998.

SW ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 2-bay. Bay to right advanced, wall surmounted by looped iron railings to advanced, timber door off-centre to left of ground floor, gabled boarded timber opening to attic floor with kingpost detail; irregular fenestration to left return. Bay to left recessed; 3 square openings to ground floor, flanked to left and right by doorway; piend-roofed dormer with glazed boarded timber door breaking eaves to attic floor.

Predominantly modern timber windows. Piended purple-grey slate roof with fishscale band and lead ridges; louvred ventilator to apex at SW. Coped wallhead and ridge stacks with circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: not seen 1998.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND RAILINGS: coped, tooled rubble walls surmounted by looped railings stepped down to SE of Kennels. Rough-faced, coped wall extends from ancillary structure to N of 3-5 Bush Cottages. Coped granite wall stepped down to W and N of 1-2 Bush Cottages.

Statement of Interest

The Glen Tanar Estate was originally a deer forest which was part of the Aboyne Castle Estate. In 1869 Sir William Cunliffe Brooks, a Manchester banker and MP, bought the estate from the 10th Marquis of Huntly. He employed Thomas Mawson to layout the garden and estate, George Truefitt as architect, and 250 masons to construct the buildings, built of granite quarried locally. Truefitt designed a variety of quirky, originally detailed buildings ranging from the wildly detailed rogue gothic house to simple tiny cottages. Bush Cottages and the Kennels form part of the model farm. The kennels were provided with electric light, and according to Coutts "are the finest on Deeside, and if the canine inmates are not comfortable and grateful, they ought to be" (p213). The drawing of the turreted cottage can be found in the NMRS Photo Album (p44), labelled "Pipers House, October 1885".

External Links

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