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House, still in residential use. The main block was built before 1685, and mention is made in 1602 of a building that may be this property. It is possibly built on earlier foundations, and incorporates roof timbers from circa 1470. The rear wing is dated '1717'. It is shown on OS maps from the 1st edition onwards as two adjacent rectangular buildings with a long rectangular rear plot. It is a two-storey building, with an L-plan main block. The rear wing is two-storey and basement. The building is rubble-built, with stugged dressings and later ashlar shop frontages with chamfered openings and a first-floor level band course. It has crowstepped gables and a brick stack on the south gable. It fell into a state of disrepair, and in the 1960s some works were carried out to protect the building. The interior was partially excavated by SUAT in 1999. Trial pits inside the property revealed deposits, infilled voids, levelling, the remains of earlier wall structures and quarried bedrock. A burnt layer and a multi-floored sequence was dated to a probable medieval date by a finely incised piece of dressed sandstone. The building has the only crowsteps to survive on a domestic building in Brechin. The ground floor of the frontage has been refaced with ashlar in the mid-19th century for the creation of two shops, the upper floor is of random rubble with five irregularly placed windows, two of which are blocked. The pend was excavated, but revealed no deposits, making it possible that it was originally a vennel (alley) between two properties. The lintel to the door of the basement at the rear has the date '1717'. The roof space of the original High Street property has an Ashlar post roof with a superb collection of carpenter's (or assembly) marks. The roof has twenty-four frames, all of the timber of which is of oak. Just under half of these bear evidence of re-use, with redundant joints and duplicate carpenter's marks which were distinct to the others. This suggests that the roof contains elements of a previous building, which could be dated through dendrochronological dating, therefore the Tayside Building Preservation Trust commissioned a survey. The re-used timbers from the first roof correlated well with master chronologies from Scandinavia and with Scottish sites which used imported Scandinavian timbers, dating it to the period AD 1359-1470, several samples indicated that the trees had been felled in spring 1470, the number XXV used as a carpenter's mark suggests that it was larger than the 24 framed current building. The second roof, which appears to have used local timbers, could not be dated. It is possible that the earlier house is the 'slate house' mentioned in documents of the 15th century. A further programme if building recording was carried out in 2010 by Addyman Archaeology as part of the Brechin THI. A possible sequence for the evolution of the Merchant's House was proposed, as follows: 1: the principal frontage range may incorporate masonry of an earlier building, perhaps represented by elements within the rear wall. A wing apparently ran out from the rear, down-slopeside of this. The carved window stone from the earlier SUAT trench may come from this building, or the original frontage property. The earlier roof represented by the timbers datable to circa 1470 may have come from this original range and may thus provide dating for it. 2: The surviving roof structure suggests an immediate phase when the couples were in numerical order. This might correlate to a lower eaves level suggested on the frontage façade and probably traceable on surviving parts of the rear facade. 3: The existing roof was probably retained in its existing form, although the individual couples changed position. This rearrangement may well relate to a raising of the building to its present position, perhaps to achieve additional accommodation in the roof space. It is tentatively suggested that the 2nd/3rd phases of the building occurred in the later 17th Century. 4: The interior of the frontage range appears to have been re-ordered at the time of the addition of the four-storied rear jamb in the early 18th century. The internal arrangements of both the frontage range and jambs can be reconstructed in considerable details for this period. The pend and stair leading from this to the rigg behind are of this phase in their present form, and the lower walling of the north-west jamb represents a stone revetted terrace of this phase. 5: There are numerous minor interior alterations of the 19th Century and, in many areas, complete sequences of well-preserved wallpapers. The principal alterations include the inserted shop frontages. The associated shop interiors, and the erection of a one-and-a half storied rear jamb to the north-west upon the earlier terrace. The building was then fully restored in 2011-12 as a residential building.
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Historic Environment Records (HER) 
Angus
HER -
NO56SE0076 - 68-74 HIGH STREET, BRECHIN