Rossie Priory is a
category B listed
This is a list of Category A listed buildings in Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern ...
country house and estate to the north of
Inchture, near the hamlets of Baledgarno and
Knapp,
Perthshire
Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...
, Scotland. It lies by road west of the city centre of
Dundee
Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
.
The large estate is roughly 2000 acres.
Rossie Priory house
Rossie Priory was designed by the architect
William Atkinson in Regency Gothic Style. It was designed as a house (1807) for
Charles Kinnaird, 8th Lord Kinnaird as the seat of the
Kinnaird family and replaced Drimmie House, which was subsequently demolished.
The house was added to between 1839-40 and the chapel completed in 1865-66.
[ A large portion of the house was demolished in 1948, as the vast building was deemed too impractical to maintain in the twentieth century, and alterations were carried out in 1949 by architect Sir Basil Spence. Plans of the demolished buildings in the Spence Archive show the significant reduction and that the foundations were to be covered with a terraced garden.
]
Designed landscape
The designed landscape and gardens of Rossie Priory are considered to be "of outstanding value as a Work of Art" by Historic Environment Scotland.[ The designed landscape dates from around 1800-33 and was further developed between 1887 and the end of the twentieth century. The landscape includes parklands, woodlands and walled gardens. An ]arboretum
An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...
was established in the 1860s and there are three main ornamental gardens: the Terrace, the Topiary and the Water gardens. Prior to 1800, there was a scheme of planting surrounding Drimmie House which can be seen on the Roy Military Survey map (1747-52).
Notable monuments
Moncur Castle was the original fortified house on the Rossie estate and dates from the sixteenth century; its remains are a scheduled ancient monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...
. Rossie Priory Stone, a cross slab with Pictish symbols, is in Kinnaird Mausoleum (formerly Rossie Church) and also a scheduled monument of national importance. The market cross
A market cross, or in Scots, a mercat cross, is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, where historically the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a baron.
History
Market crosses ...
of the old village of Rossie dates from 1746 and is listed category A. It takes the form of a Corinthian column surmounted by two lions and two unicorns.
Sporting and artistic connections
Rossie Priory Cricket Club is based on the estate and was founded in 1828 by George Kinnaird, 9th Lord Kinnaird; it is the second oldest Scottish cricket club still in existence after Kelso.
George Kinnaird also established an early calotype
Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low ...
photographic studio with the assistance of Thomas Rodger in around 1850.University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...
.
Arthur Kinnaird, 11th Lord Kinnaird was a leading football player, who played for Scotland, and served as the president of the Football Association.
Sale of the estate
Rossie Priory House and 240 acres of the estate were put up for sale in August 2021.
References
Country houses in Perth and Kinross
Houses completed in 1817
Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes
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