Description
Dated 1776. S facing, 2-storey and dormerless attic,
symmetrical 5-bay house. Pinned, squared rubble frontge, harl
pointed rubble flanks, polished ashlar dressings and margins.
Slightly advanced centre gabletted bay with rusticated centre
doorpiece, small attic window and apex stack. Single ground,
1st floor and attic windows in E gable, paired ground and 1st
floor within similar attic window in W gable; 12-pane
glazing.
Rusticated quoins; decorative lipped scroll skewputts, dated
at SW and with nautilus shell carved on gable faces; moulded
copes to ashlar end stacks; slate roofs.
Later single storey, 3-bay rear wing.
INTERIOR: entrance/stairhall with cantilevered staircase
rising full-height around square stairwell; reused stair
treads with moulded risers (moulding truncated at outside
edge) and with 1776 recut underside; twisted wrought-iron
balusters between ground and 1st floor, turned wooden
balusters above. Simple moulded ceiling cornices; raised and
fielded panelled doors and window shutters. Black marble
chimneypiece in dining room, later 19th century carved
chimneypiece in drawing room with white marble slip; reused
late 17th century moulded chimneypiece (?from Blervie
Castle) in one attic room.
Statement of Special Interest
Blervie Castle, of which the single 5-storey tower survives
sited to N of Blervie Mains House, was demolished in 1776 to
provide building material for the new mansion, in turn
superseded as Blervie House by the 1901 building of that
name. The nautilus shell carving on the skewputts is peculiar
to Forres and Findhorn, with this example at Blervie the only
one known outside these 2 centres.
House built by The Hon Major Lewis Duff, son of William
Braco, Earl of Fife.
Farmhouse and steading not included in listing.