Description
Built circa 1760. Medium-scale Palladian mansion,
rectangular-plan, 3 storeys with sunk basement and roof
balustrade. 3-bay front and rear elevations, 5-bay flanks, lightly-droved red ashlar, polished dressings and continuous
cill band at 1st floor. E front: recessed distyle in antis
Doric porch, architraved door with traceried fanlight;
similarly proportioned tripartite above, inner light consoled
and pedimented, outer 1st floor windows each with consoled
cornice; 2nd floor windows in double-lugged architraves
(ground floor windows in double-lugged margins); angles
channelled at ground. Unmargined windows to other elevations:
continuous blocked cornice. Corniced stacks; piended
shallow-pitch slate roof concealed by parapet.
Low lean-to addition to rear (W) blocks original door;
louvered timber game store nearby.
INTERIOR: tripartite plan, and largely intact; some refitting
early 19th century; rear service rooms altered circa 1938 by
M Purdon Smith. Doric screen in entrance hall, cantilevered
stair beyond with cupola and with early 19th century
cast-iron balustrade. 18th and early 19th century
chimneypieces; some good cornice plasterwork, particularly in
large drawing room; long gallery full length of top floor
fitted out mid 19th century (?by John Starforth) for library
of William Bell MacDonald.
Statement of Special Interest
Built for Dr James Mounsey, physician to Empress Elizabeth of
Russia.
Mounsey bought Rammerscales in 1758, and returned to Scotland
in 1762. Estate sold by Mounsey's daughters to James Bell;
family now Bell-MacDonald.
Comparable recessed porch at Knockhill House in Hoddom Parish
dated 1777.