Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

DUFF HOUSELB21985

Status: Designated

Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Category
A
Group Category Details
100000019 - see Notes
Date Added
22/02/1972
Local Authority
Aberdeenshire
Planning Authority
Aberdeenshire
Burgh
Banff
NGR
NJ 69063 63317
Coordinates
369063, 863317

Description

William Adam, 1735-40; George Jamieson, mason; John Burn, specialised carving. Substantial Baroque mansion; square plan (9 x 8-bay), 3-storey on raised basement (mezzanine to side elevations) with advanced corner towers, breaking eaves, and with domed roofs and cupolas. Finest ashlar, rusticated basement, dividing cornice above, band course at 1st floor, substantial mutuled cornice above frieze, below attic floor; wallhead balustrade with panelled and urn-finialled dies on cornice and blocking course. Fluted Corinthian pilasters rising through principal and 1st floors and to towerheads. Architraved windows, pedimented to principal floor, corniced to 1st floor, keystoned to 2nd, attic floor, round-arched and keystoned below swags and tablet panels in towerheads, keystoned and blinded to tower basements, aprons to principal and 1st floor windows; basket-arched, windows to tower basements. Carved ornament to blocking course of towerheads with urn finials to angles; corniced, octagonal, panelled, ashlar, lantern stacks to centres of domed roofs.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 9-bay (1-2-3-2-1). Ashlar ram's horn stair up to principal floor of advanced 3-bay centrepiece with panelled ashlar piers and dies, coped stone balustrade (right section reinstated circa 1988), with 3-bay round-arched arcade with impost course to exposed basement (luggage door under). Triumphal, pedimented centrepiece with round-arched windows at principal and 1st floor (French doors to centre of former) and blind balustraded apron to 1st floor windows; exuberant armorial carving in tympanum of pediment (Duff Arms and motto) masking attic floor with blind windows part visible to outer bays; classical lead statuettes at apex (Diana) and outer angles of pediment (Mars and Orpheus). Regular fenestration elsewhere, as detailed above.

N ELEVATION: detailed as S elevation minus ram's horn stair and French windows, and with different details to pediment.

E ELEVATION: mezzanine windows to principal and 1st floors in penultimate bays, 3 centre slightly advanced bays with pedimented windows to principal floor and corniced to 1st. No pediment. Evidence of David Bryce Junior, 1870, corridor block and service pavilion (bombed 1941), previously adjoined to left corner tower.

W ELEVATION: 2 centre bays slightly advanced with stair windows pedimented at 1st floor, mezzanine windows in flaning bays and corner towers. Rubble masonry evidencing intended pink and pavilion (never executed) visible at ground and basement of right corner tower.

Multi-pane, timber sash and case windows. Tall, panelled and corniced ashlar stacks. Grey slate roofs with lead flashings.

INTERIOR: fine classical interior. Decorative work continued by 2nd Earl of Fife after 1763, with William Lyon, plasterer. Stair hall with wide cantilevered staircase and plaster ceiling (Lyon, 1769). Secondary stair winds around top-lit square arcaded well with turned balusters to balustrade. Suite of 1st floor rooms including centre Saloon with fine plasterwork ceiling. Decorative plasterwork elsewhere. Raised and fielded panelling to joinery work, including dadoes, moulded doorcases and carved overdoors, including consoled and/or dentilled cornices, pediments, or fluted Ionic pilastered jambs. Some early 19th century beaded panelling to window shutters. Depressed archways at 2nd floor Carved and gilded classical chimneypieces. Attic storey decoration completed by 1776, including library. Coombed ceilings, some with modillioned cornices. Basement with segmental barrel-vaulted room, keystoned round-headed archways, basket-arched chimneypieces.

Statement of Special Interest

Property in Care of Scottish Ministers.

A-Group with Duff House, Fife Gates, Walled Garden, Collie Lodge, Mausoleum, Ice House, Bridge Gates House and the Eagles Gate Lodge.

Duff House is an outstanding example of an 18th century Classical House, designed by a major architect of the period and with excellent interior decoration.

Duff House was commissioned by William Duff, later Lord Braco (1735) and 1st Earl of Fife (1754), a rich, self-made Banffshire man. The mansion was intended to have flanking pavilions linked by colonnaded quadrants but these were never completed owing to disagreements between Lord Braco and Adam, which caused work to stop in 1741. David Bryce Junior was later commissioned to provide a 3-storey pavilion and corridor block

interpreting William Adam's design; this was damaged by a stray bomb in 1941 and later demolished. The 2nd Earl Fife had earlier commissioned John Woolfe to rework Adam's designs for the pavilions and to make several interior changes, but these were never realised. The masonry work which broke Lord Braco financially had been ordered from John Burn who worked at Adam's yard at Queensferry: the bill came to £2500.

The Earls of Fife left Duff House in 1903, gifting the property to Banff Burgh in 1906. From 1911-28, Duff House served as a hotel and sanatorium; it was requisition in 1939 by the War Office to function as a prison and later a billet for foreign and Scottish troops. It was acquired by the Ministry of Works in 1956, and opened as a country house gallery in 1995. The house sits in a designed landscape, now altered by the addition of a golf course. See also the listings for the Bridge Gates House and Collie Lodge, Fife Gates, the Ice House, the Mausoleum, the Walled Garden, and in the parish, the Eagle Gate Lodge.

William Adam (1689-1748) was an outstanding architect of the early 18th century, designing in a Classical style and founding a exceptional architectural dynasty. Known chiefly for his country houses, his contribution to the architectural landscape of Scotland is without parallel. His buildings include the reworking of Hopetoun House, the House of Dun, Arniston, Haddo House and Mavisbank (see separate listings).

Previously a Scheduled Monument. The scheduling was removed in 2012.

References

Bibliography

VITRUVIUS SCOTICUS (1735), Pls 146-7. VITRUVIUS BRITANNICUS (1771), Pls 7, 58-60. John Gifford WILLIAM ADAM (1989), pp151-5. Howard

Colvin BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS (1978), p58. INVENTORY OF GARDENS AND DESIGNED LANDSCAPES, vol 3, pp209-14.

A A Tait DUFF HOUSE, HMSO Guidebook. TRANSACTIONS of the Royal Archaeological Institute (1973), vol 130, 'The Buildings of Duff House', James Simpson, SRO GD248.

Historic Environment Scotland Properties

Duff House

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/duff-house

Find out more

Related Designations

  1. Duff HouseGDL00148

    Designation Type
    Garden & Designed Landscape
    Status
    Designated

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

Images

There are no images available for this record, you may want to check Canmore for images relating to DUFF HOUSE

There are no images available for this record.

Search Canmore

Printed: 28/03/2024 20:18