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Laird's House, built in the late 17th or early 18th Centuries, still in residential use. Skellater House is a crisply harled T-plan laird's house with a three-window centre and stone-gabled dormers of 1845 above, flanked by gabled advanced wings. The centre doorway is roll-moulded with an oval transom light and armorial panel above, dated 1770 (MDCCLXX). The house is roofed with graded grey slates topped with a stone ridge. Windows are of a 12-pane glazing pattern, now with secondary double-glazing. Inside, a good central wooden staircase survives, with double-arched treatment at the ground floor and first floor landing, but the remainder of the house was gutted prior to 1975 when it was restored. The house was used as a hay store from circa 1900 until the 1970s. In 2004, cornices, moulded skirtings and architraves were reinstated. Rear extensions were added in 1857 and again in 2004-5. The coat of arms on the panel above the front door belongs to the Forbes of Skellater, and bears the motto 'Solus inter Plures', which translates as 'Alone among many', thought to refer to the fact that the Skellater Forbes' held differing religious beliefs from their own clan and joined with the Gordon Forbes clan in supporting the Jacobite cause. George Forbes of Skellater fought at Culloden and died in Boulogne in October 1767. General John Forbes of Skellater married a Portuguese princess and became a Field Marshal in the Portuguese army. He is said to have shown great military talent, and to have acted with great success against the Spaniards. When the royal family of Portugal went to the Brazils in November 1807, he accompanied them and died there in 1809.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)