Moray HER - NJ24SE0088 - FISHERTON HOUSE, CHARLESTOWN OF ABERLOUR

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Main Details

Primary ReferenceNJ24SE0088
NameFISHERTON HOUSE, CHARLESTOWN OF ABERLOUR
NRHE Card No.NJ24SE76
NRHE Numlink 234918
HES SM No. NULL
HES LB No. 2358
Site Form Standing Structure
Site Condition Complete 2
Details Fisherton House was constructed in 1839 to a design by William Robertson and is B Listed. There are later additions by Sir John Ritchie Findlay, who purchased the house and estate in 1885. A photographic survey of Fisherton was carried out in 2012 prior to redevelopment adjacent to the site. The Fisherton land was part of the lands of Aberlour House (NJ24SE0020), built in 1838, also to a design by William Robertson. Fisherton house is 2-storey plus dormerless attic rooms, and constructed from granite with a slated roof and coped end stacks. The main elevation faces northwest towards the River Spey, with a driveway leading from the A95 through stone pillars with cast iron gates. It is a symmetrical pedimented 3-bay frontage, constructed from squared tooled mixed granite, with mixed granite flanks and tooled granite margins. The centre entrance is masked by a modern concrete block porch, with a corrugated-iron roof and side entrance. There are also down pipes on the frontage of the house that are later additions. There is regular first floor rear fenestration, and an off-centre rear doorway with a later lean-to porch. There are single ground floor and small attic windows in the east and west return gables, using 12-pane glazing. In the late-19th century, an Estate Office wing was added to the east side of the house in the style of James Leslie Findlay, Edinburgh. It is a single storey wing that abuts the east gable, and projects forward at the north with a crowstepped and gabled front. It is constructed from tooled granite, and tooled and polished ashlar sandstone dressings. There is a centre door in the north gable, with a lugged, moulded and corniced doorpiece and a small attic window above. There are bipartite breaks the wallhead in the east return elevation under a wide, richly carved, segmental-headed dormer, with a centre monogram and moulded surround. Glazing is 12-pane. A piended slate roof abuts the front crowstepped gable. The steading block was constructed in 1885 and, at perhaps around the same time, kennels were built. The steading is specifically noted by Historic Scotland as not being part of the Listing. The steading consists of a U-shaped structure, the central part of which was the dairy, with stalls on each side. The central dairy section has a higher wallhead than the adjacent spaces. The east wing has the remains of a feeding trough down the middle and was at some time damaged by fire and reconstructed. There is a hayloft above. On the Aberlour side, the west wing was at some time converted to use as a house, and may have been a bothy prior to that. A concrete single storey kitchen/bathroom wing was added to serve that house. With the exception of the east wing, and a small area at the rear of the west wing, the steading has good clean concrete floors. The former dairy has glazed floor tiles and the walls are finished in white glazed tiles. The adjacent stalls also have glazed tiles on the walls up to dado height. The steading is constructed from granite, with a slated roof and overhang with exposed soffit and sprockets. It also features an ornate fascia with quatrefoil detailing and lead finials on the ridges at the gable ends, some of which are now missing. The Ordnance Survey Banff XXIV 3 map from 1869-72 shows Fisherton House without the single storey extension, and with a walled garden to the northeast. On the footprint of the current steading, there are three smaller buildings noted as 'Fisherton Kennels', which were presumably demolished when the steading was built in circa 1885. The kennels are currently located to the northeast of Fisherton House, and consist of stone construction with a slated roof, and an external run with wrought iron railings. There is an additional timber kennel abutting the stone building. There are also four stone built kennels, and there is an obvious line in the kennel and enclosure construction where the building has been extended at some point from two to four kennels. It is most obvious on the rear elevation where there is a clear line in the stonework and slate roof. The two kennels closest to Fisherton House appear to be of an older construction, using different stonework, similar to that of the steading. They also have timber lintels over the doors and the dog run railings are leaded into the stone cope. The later two kennels use a lesser quality of stone, with concrete lintels and cement harl on the dog run enclosure walls. The railings to the dog run are also bolted to the cope rather than leaded. There is a metal fixing on the front elevation on the line of the extension, where presumably the original railing returned against the stonework with an access gate like the other side. There are two timber sheds to the south of Fisherton House. Both sheds appear on the 1905 Ordnance Survey map. The shed closest to the steading has the same quatrefoil fascia details and leaded caps for finials as the steading, and presumably dates from the same time. It is of a timber post and beam construction with timber board on board cladding and internal shiplap linings, with a slate roof. The other shed is of a different proportion and detailing to the first, and has interesting ornamental clay ridge tiles and sunflower finials. It should be noted that these details are very similar to those on the timber station buildings at Knockando (called Tamdhu) and perhaps points towards this shed being re-used from a railway yard or station within the area. This shed also has an intriguing construction along the southeast elevation, which hints that it used to adjoin another structure along this line. Internally there are columns at 3m intervals and large beams at the wall head that are spliced above the central column. Presumably, this was once open along its length. The columns sit on 200mm square sandstone blocks, and there is an infill timber post and rail arrangement along this elevation between the columns. The timber cladding on the outside is more recent than the remainder of the shed, but without the cover battens. The fascia boards on this elevation are also clipped, unlike the other side. This shed appears to have been used at some point to house birds such as chickens or game, whereby the lining was amended to wire mesh and the openings were formed on the northwest elevation. The concrete floors in both sheds appear to have been shuttered and cast into the sheds at a later date, as they sit higher than the wall plates.
Last Update28/07/2022
Updated Bycpalmer
CompilerEC
Date of Compilation21/05/2012

Google Map for NJ24SE0088

National Grid Reference: NJ 2738 4344



Event Details

Event DateEvent TypeOASIS ID
2012 Building Recording

Excavations and Surveys


Artefact and Ecofact

Ecofact

Samples
Palynology
Ecofact Notes

Monument Types

Monument Type 1Monument Type 2Monument Type 3OrderProbability
FARMHOUSES  A100
FARMSTEADS  B100
KENNELSTIMBER C100
KENNELSSTONE D100
SHEDS  E100
END-STACKS COPEDF100
GATEPIERSSTONE G100
GATESWROUGHT-IRON H100
MARGINS TOOLEDI100
PORCHES CONCRETEJ100
ROOFSCORRUGATED-IRON K100
ROOFSSLATEPIENDEDL100
PORCHES LEAN-TOM100
DOORPIECES CORNICEDQ100
DOORPIECES LUGGEDR100
DOORPIECES CORNICEDS100
FLOORS CONCRETET100
TILESFLOORGLAZEDU100
GABLES CROW-STEPPEDN100
DRESSINGSASHLARTOOLEDO100
DRESSINGS POLISHEDP100
FINIALSLEAD V100
GARDENSWALLED W100
RAILINGSWROUGHT-IRON X100