Kintore Town House is a municipal structure in The Square,

Kintore, Aberdeenshire Kintore (; ) is a town and former royal burgh near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, now bypassed by the A96 road between Aberdeen and Inverness. It is situated on the banks of the River Don. Nearby are the remains of Hallforest Castl ...

, Scotland. The structure, which is used as commercial offices, is a Category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The building was commissioned by John Keith, 3rd Earl of Kintore, whose seat was at Keith Hall, in 1737. He had been elected as provost of Kintore the previous year and this building was his gift to the town. It was designed in the Scottish medieval style, built in coursed

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

and was completed in 1747. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto The Square; the main frontage featured a sweeping semi-circular double forestair which led up to a central doorway with a rectangular

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window (transom window), often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing (window), glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open Hand fan, fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, ...

on the first floor. The stairway encased another doorway, which was surmounted by the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

of the Earl of Kintore, on the ground floor, and was flanked by further doorways on either side. The other bays on the first floor were fenestrated by 12-pane

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s with window cills. At roof level, there was a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

with a central square tower with an

ogee An ogee ( ) is an object, element, or curve—often seen in architecture and building trades—that has a serpentine- or extended S-shape (Sigmoid curve, sigmoid). Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combination of two semicircle, semicircula ...

-shaped roof. The ogee-shaped roof recalled the style used in the design of Keith Hall. Internally, the principal rooms were a prison cell with a vaulted ceiling for petty criminals on the ground floor, and a council chamber for meetings of the burgh council on the east side of the first floor. Other rooms included a small shop, a schoolroom and a store to hold agricultural produce deposited by tenant farmers who chose to pay their rent in kind. A clock was made by Hugh Gordon of

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, paid for by George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal, whose seat was at Inverugie Castle, and was installed in the tower in 1774. A northwest facing wing was added at the back of the building shortly after the clock was added. The building continued to serve as the meeting place of the burgh council throughout the 19th century and for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Gordon District Council was formed in 1975. The building was subsequently converted for use as commercial offices. In December 2021, a local charity, Action Kintore, submitted a planning application for proposals developed by architects, Lippe, to convert the building into a community hub. The proposals involved a café on the ground floor and an assembly room for community events on the first floor. Aberdeenshire Council gave planning consent for the proposals, allowing Action Kintore, to start seeking finance for the project, in May 2022. Action Kintore estimated that the project would cost circa £1 million to implement.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1747 City chambers and town halls in Scotland Category A listed buildings in Aberdeenshire Kintore, Aberdeenshire

History

See also

References