Principal front with
Victorian porch.

Porch with original door
and window openings.

Porch entrance.

View showing Victorian
extension.

Main facade in April 1993.

The category 'B' listed Pitgaveny House (NJ26NW 31) stands in the Moray countryside, approximately 3 miles north east of Elgin and near to the ruined bishop's palace of Spynie (NJ26NW 10). The house dates to 1776, having been built by a wealthy merchant who had purchased the estate in the decade before. Today, the private residence is as originally intended, yet, as the photographic collection in the NMRS illustrates, the house went through significant changes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The house was built to a restrained classical design, and was described in 1868 as being 'understood to be after a Portuguese model 1'. Although the merchant owner did indeed make his fortune in Lisbon, the influences upon the house appear to be the urban dwellings of the Edinburgh New Town: the strong verticality of Pitgaveny is more commonly found in restricted city sites, yet the expanse of land upon which it sits could easily have afforded the horizontal emphasis that is normally associated with country houses.

In 1870 a descendant of the original owner completed building works to extend the house. A large three-bay, single-storey porch was added to the entrance (south west) elevation. The detailing of the rusticated quoins, the cornice topped by ball finials and the dimensions of the windows were all designed in harmony with the original house. Nevertheless, the porch was not in keeping with the strict classical symmetry of the house; the entrance staircase and doorway was to be found on only one side of the porch, rather than mirrored on both sides.

To the rear, contemporary with the porch, a large four-storey extension was built. Again, this was detailed in a similar manner to the original house. This extension, being of comparable scale to the house itself, provided additional servants' accommodation and services such as the laundry. Although there had been a wing to the rear in the years before 1870, it would have been far smaller, as all the service functions had been contained in the basement level of the house. Internally, the entrance hall and adjacent room were merged to create a large living-hall, and connections between the main block and the rear wing provided at ground and first floor levels. A later extension, Edwardian in period, was added to the east corner of the house, and further added to the complicated composition of this part of the house.

In 1992-3 the owners of the house removed these additions in order to recreate the 1776 appearance of the house. The porch was removed completely and the rear wing much reduced in size. Notably, the door surround from the porch was retained and used to reframe the original doorway - quite unlike the 1868 description of 'two lofty Doric columns… supporting a massive pediment' 2. The interior configuration was also reinstated, helped by the fact that in the living-hall the original cornicing had remained unaltered. It is also interesting to note that although the additions were of considerable scale, the original structure of the house remained largely unchanged, with original window and door openings remaining quite apparent.

RCAHMS holds almost 50 images of Pitgaveny House and its grounds from the 1960s and from the 1990s, largely concentrating on the restoration of the building, along with a survey record from 1991.

1. Watson, J&W; Morayshire Described; Russell & Watson; Elgin; 1868, p115 (NMRS Bib.No. 34180)
2. Watson, J&W; Morayshire Described; Russell & Watson; Elgin; 1868, p115 (NMRS Bib.No. 34180)

View of east elevation.

Location plan.

Elevations and sections.

View northeast to
entrance.

The Sandford Hotel sits atop Newton Hill in NE Fife looking across the Firth of Tay to Dundee. Built in 1902, by Baillie Hugh Mackay Scott (1865-1945) for the Dundee postcard manufacturer, Harben J Valentine. The house was originally called Sandford Cottage and was planned on a much smaller scale, as a modest middle class family home in the English Arts and Crafts style. It is one of only two houses that Baillie Scott built in Scotland, the other being The White House in Helensburgh.

The compact rectangular layout of Sandford Cottage included a multi-functional open-plan dining-hall/living-hall in which the space could easily be altered by use of moveable screens or curtains. Baillie Scott went on to develop this relatively innovative design feature in his scheme for a series of twinned cottages for the Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire (1905). Baillie Scott also felt it was important to employ local building techniques where possible and therefore the Sandford Cottage was originally thatched, "This little house was built in a district of Scotland where thatching with reeds was still understood, and so this method of roofing was adopted." 1

In 1909/10 Baillie Scott was commissioned to extend the house and a wing was added to the west creating an L-shape plan that incorporated a south-facing courtyard with three arch loggia and a tiled fountain. However, not long after, in 1912, the Valentine home was consumed by fire, destroying the thatched roof while the rest of the house was gutted, leaving just a shell. Following this, the roof was replaced with red tiles and the previously exposed brick exterior, harled and painted white.

At this time, according to anecdotal evidence, Baillie Scott was again employed and a double height drawing-room with minstrel's gallery was introduced. In order to create the height that was needed, the rock on the southern slope below the house was blasted away. The partially sunken elevation features a full height Tudor window that looked out onto a Japanese garden that Valentine himself had created.

The RCAHMS public search room houses a number of drawings from 1936, which were collated by the then owner, before further alterations were made. The building is category 'B' listed by Historic Scotland. The plans for Sandford Cottage can be seen in Baillie Scott's own book entitled 'Houses and Gardens' (1933), a copy of which is also available for viewing in the RCAHMS library. In addition the RCAHMS library holds a large collection of Valentine postcards and historic photographs.

1. Houses and Gardens, Baillie Scott, 1933.

Other useful reference sites: www.bailliescott.com  |  www.gov.im/mnh/bailliescott.asp

Dirleton Castle doocot.

Tantallon Castle doocot.

Heugh doocot.

Harelaw doocot.

Trabroun doocot.

Saltoun Hall doocot.

Dovecotes, or 'doocots', are an extremely varied architectural category, a traditional working building used not only in Europe, but the Middle East, Egypt, and Ancient Rome. The basic needs of height, a dark cave-like interior full of nesting-recesses, and sunny, sheltered perching space were the same around the world, while the forms were adapted to suit regional climate variations. They also evolved over time to respond to changing priorities in farming, different building methods, and new aesthetic considerations

The oldest of the dovecote forms traditional to Britain is the beehive. Dating from before the sixteenth century, they typically have massive tapered walls topped with a flat-domed roof, built of local stone rubble. A hole in the roof allows the pigeons in and out, and the walls were coated with white plaster to attract the pigeons. Dirleton Castle has a well preserved one of this type. The ledges around the outside, which can be seen on almost all dovecotes in some form or another, are resting perches, intended to allow the birds to soak up the sun or be protected from the wind.

In Scotland the most characteristic traditional style is the lectern dovecot. This consists of a square tower with mono-pitch roof almost always sloping to the south, with crow-stepped gables, and entry holes horizontally across the roof, such as at Tantallon Castle.

There were also many variations of tower dovecot; In East Lothian alone, there are examples such as the stepped-edge round tower at Heugh, the castellated tower in Lady Kelly's Garden, and the round tower with conical roof at Whitburgh.

In these early dovecotes, pigeons were farmed as a delicacy by and for the wealthy, and they were allowed to feed freely from the surrounding fields. The Sportsman's Dictionary in 1735 described pigeons as 'a domestic bird, fed in order to be eaten' 1. However, attitudes changed and their indiscriminate feeding from everyone's crops became seen as a nuisance. Gradually pigeon keeping was brought down to a smaller scale, where the birds were fed in the yard like poultry.

The traditional isolated dovecotes were abandoned in favour of smaller ones set with the other farm buildings, creating an integrated architectural scheme. The use of brick allowed thinner walls with separate nest boxes. Instead of running from floor to ceiling, as with the older styles, these nests began some 4 feet from the ground to protect from the new Brown rats. East Lothian has some fine examples where the dovecot sits over and highlights the entrance to a farm steading, such as the square one at Harelaw, and the polygonal-roofed tower at Trabroun.

This architectural concern was taken to an even greater extreme when it became fashionable to treat utilitarian buildings as ornamental features of a country estate. In 1750, John Clerk of Pennicuik incorporated a dovecote into a tower in his grounds, describing it as "an ornament to the country" 2. Patternbooks, including such prestigious ones as Palladio's Quatro Libri included dovecote designs, and East Lothian has its own built examples of this trend. The square castellated folly at Saltoun Hall, circa 1800, sits in woodland within the grounds, and demonstrates that these gentleman's dovecotes were entirely separate from the farming tradition, instead driven purely by the desire to create a picturesque view.

The RCAHMS collection holds photographs and drawings relating to 62 dovecotes in East Lothian alone, with over 600 throughout Scotland, and a comprehensive selection of books, leaflets and articles on the subject.

1. Quoted in John McCann; Enquiry into the Design and Use of Dovecotes, Trans Ancient Monuments Society, Vol. 35, p97
2. Quoted in John McCann; Enquiry into the Design and Use of Dovecotes, Trans Ancient Monuments Society, Vol. 35, p127

Front elevation.

Front elevation.

Drawing of front elevation.

Ground floor plan.

Motherwell Public Library was one of many funded throughout the English-speaking world by the Scotsman, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). He emigrated to America as a child of humble origin when the town was recently established with a population of just a few hundred. Like Motherwell, his subsequent prosperity was based on domination of the iron and steel industries and, in 1902, he offered £12,000 for a new library there.

Recognizing his munificence, the burgh council provided a site for the new building at 33-35 Hamilton Road (NT 75059 56910) opposite the town hall, which it answers in scale and in its simple but distinguished English baroque style. It was designed by Alfred Greig, Walter Fairbairn and George Donaldson MacNiven, all of whom had received a Beaux-Arts training at Robert Rowand Anderson's School of Applied Art in Edinburgh, and who had formed a partnership together in 1903. They won the job in open competition in 1904, and were subsequently responsible for the libraries at Prestonpans (1905), Whitehaven in Cumbria (1905-6), Maxton (1907) and Bonnyrigg (1908-9). Unlike some very grand libraries and mechanics' institutes founded by mid-nineteenth century philanthropists, Motherwell Public Library presents a comparatively modest and approachable appearance to the street, although the site's depth provides substantial accommodation.

The principal elevation comprises a two-storey central block with a pavilion roof, flanked by non-identical wings which are slightly set back. The pavilion block is symmetrical in general outline, but with an irregular arrangement of ground floor windows each side of the main doorway, internal efficiency taking precedence over a perfectly balanced exterior. However, the regular arrangement on the upper floor of a central arched window, set between attached columns supporting an open-based pediment, and "Serliana" (arched triple-light windows) to each side, restores a sense of stability to the composition below the main cornice and parapet. The platformed roof is crowned by a railing of slim balusters which, at 15 metres above street-level, corresponds with the 15 metres breadth of the pavilion. An elegant cupola lantern-light with attached columns completes the design and illuminates the main stair.

The wings are both almost exactly 7.5 metres broad, but very different in appearance: that on the right, which provides further library space, is similar in scale to the central pavilion, but with a lower roof; that on the left, where the triangular site is more restricted, is a much smaller cubic mass providing a librarian's house, the asymmetric window arrangement again expressing the planning inside.

Internally, the plans show that the aisled lending library room occupied the full extent of the central block beyond the entrance stair-hall, but the ground floor also provided a children's reading room, and a large newspaper and reference room within the right-hand wing. Upstairs, a ladies' reading and reference room looked onto the street, a general recreation room occupied the wing, while a lecture theatre and museum lit by cupolas under the roof-lights were located above the lending library.

Under the provisions of the Public Libraries Act, a levy on the rates funded the purchase of 10,000 books, many relating to technical and scientific matters as befitted Motherwell's industrial character. The building opened in 1906, its first librarian being George MacNairn who had previously set up the Hawick Carnegie Library. By 1911 Motherwell's library contained 15,000 books (including 2,000 for children), and played host to the town's Natural History and Literary & Debating Societies, besides numerous other local organisations.

As well as the two modern-day views of the building shown here, RCAHMS holds photographic copies of all Greig, Fairbairn & MacNiven's designs, the originals still being preserved within the library itself.

Front elevation.

Detail of tower.

View from side.

View from side.

Castle Terrace, Bridge of Weir was originally a grand building called The Ranfurly Hotel, which was opened in June 1882. Robert Raeburn designed it for the Bonar family who were the proprietors of the Ranfurly estate on which several villas were being built at this time. On the opening day the chairman, Mr. Horatio Bonar, explained that his family decided to build the hotel to provide facilities for country gentlemen indulging in sporting activities. This need was partly met with the creation of extensive pleasure grounds and a bowling green situated on the high ground above the hotel below which the hunt would gather.

The railway line to Bridge of Weir had been constructed in 1864 making it easily accessible for hotel guests who could not failed to have been impressed by the exterior of The Ranfurly Hotel, situated on a prominent site set into a hillside. The asymmetrical tower topped with a corbelled angle bartizan adjoining a roof with Francois Premier elements including a cast-iron finialled balustrade which marks the location of the original entrance below. This strong vertical feature is balanced against the horizontal form of the North elevation, which is imbued with Scots Baronial details like turrets and crow stepped gables.

In 1896 Mr. Fritz Rupprecht of the North British Station Hotel in Glasgow bought the hotel. He immediately started renovating and extending the building and the grounds. In 1901 he employed James Miller, the prolific Glasgow architect to design the Eastern extension to the North elevation seamlessly continuing on Raeburn's original frontage, which is recorded in these photographs in a fire-damaged state.

Following Mr. Rupprecht's death a new owner bought the hotel but the demand for such an exclusive establishment was declining and it was next used as a hostel for Belgians who had been driven from their homeland at the outbreak of the First World War. After a couple of years the numbers of Belgians dwindled and the building was used as an auxiliary hospital. In 1920 the building's new owners had renovated it and opened it as The Ranfurly Castle School, which operated for five years. After lying derelict for a number of years the building was converted for a new use into shops and housing.

RCAHMS holds approximately twenty photographs, from the early 1990s, of this Category B listed building.

Aerial view.

Painted ceiling over
staircase.

View in 1981.

View of stables.

Staircase in stables.

A-listed Penicuik House in Midlothian has been described as 'the finest and most influential example of Palladian architecture surviving in Scotland.' 1 Designed by patron Sir James Clerk, an amateur architect, it was built between 1761 and 1769 under the supervision of architect John Baxter. The original intention was to incorporate the existing family house, Newbiggin, into the design, but this idea was soon abandoned in favour of a completely new build and the old house demolished. The resulting scheme became one of the grandest houses in Scotland.

Designed as a long oblong block with projecting end bays, the house incorporates many Palladian features, most notably Venetian windows, symmetrical lines and a central portico. The wings were a later addition, added in 1857 by David Bryce, and were designed to be harmonious with the existing façade. Internally, the house featured many fine rooms, now all lost following a fire in 1899. Of particular note was Ossian's Hall which featured ceiling paintings by Alexander Runciman and the staircase ceiling executed by Thomas Bonnar.

The fire on the 16th of June 1899 left Penicuik House un-inhabitable and the desire to rebuild was quashed when insurance payments were not received. Rebuilding would have been far too costly; on the evening of the fire, the damage was already estimated at around £35,000.

Following the fire, the original stable block was converted into the new family residence under the directions of Lady Aymeé Clerk. Contemporary with the mansion house, the stables are set around four ranges, originally comprising a coach-house, brew house, bakery and stables. The rear of the block is dominated by a Roman archway and masonry dome while the front features an imposing portico topped by a spire, believed by some to have been originally intended for nearby Penicuik Church. Since the conversion, the internal courtyard has been ornamented with a central fountain, shaped lawns and sculptured hedges, creating a distinctive Italianate atmosphere. In terms of decoration, many fixtures and fittings salvaged from the original house were re-incorporated into the new residence, including door cases, wainscotting and mantelpieces. Smaller items such as family portraits, statues and other antiquities have also been re-utilised, providing an insight into the lost grandeur of the original house. The former house remains today as a romantic ruin.

RCAHMS holds approximately 300 collection items relating to Penicuik House and Stables, including photographs, plans, manuscript material and a series of photographic copies of drawings showing the original designs by Clerk and Baxter. Of particular interest however are the collection items documenting the house before and even during the fire. These include copies of historic photographs showing interior views of Ossian's Hall, a copy of a historic photograph showing the house in flames and photocopies of news-cuttings from 1899 discussing the recent fire.

1 Penicuik Preservation Trust, The Preservation of Penicuik House, Scotland, nd

Aerial view.

View from south west.

Main staircase.

South sundial.

Stable block.

Throughout its long and varied history, the site of the Abbey at Newbattle has exhibited a knack for functional adaptation in order to accommodate rapid changes in the religious and cultural landscape. This aspect is clearly visible in the extensive rebuilding that has been undertaken since its beginnings as a Cistercian monastery to its remodelling by Scotland's acclaimed Baronial style architect, David Bryce and its present role as Scotland's only residential college for adult education. A selection of the numerous architectural elements that evoke this rich past are looked at here.

Founded in 1140, evidence points to the order of monks residing here from the 13th century onwards as being the earliest coalminers in Scotland. A run of successive raids by the English army, including being set on fire by Richard II in 1385 and again by the Earl of Hertford in 1544, left the Abbey in a state of ruination by the time of the Reformation. Due to the fact the existing mansion house occupies a portion of the footprint of the ancient monastery, antique mouldings and architectural fragments are partially visible in the west range and the foundations are exposed in grass to the north. To the south, the so called 'monkland wall' is the best preserved remnant while water conduits, a well and fishpond represent the surviving vestiges of a monastic village for the shepherds, wrights and artisans who served the Abbey. During the 18th century, Newbattle became a treasure house, and castellations were added to imply fortification.

Excavation of the church began in 1878 and by 1894 the earliest section of the crypt had been restored to its former appearance. To each side of the grand staircase in the main entrance hall of the abbey are flights of stairs leading down into the stone ribbed and vaulted crypts. These boast distinctive octagonal pillars and polished oak floors. Five of the nine bays are medieval and are probably part of the rebuilding that took place during the late 14th century. One of the crypt's most distinctive features, found in the smallest bay now converted to a private chapel, is the parquet floor. Inlaid with small tiles consisting of geometric shapes, fleur de leys and roses, its pattern corresponds to a previously excavated area of old tiles. No design was used unless an old tile existed to use as a template and the wood - mainly yew, oak, maple, laburnum and plane - was taken only from specimen trees in the surrounding park grounds, providing a further degree of continuity.

A distinctive feature of the formal gardens is the unusual pair of monumental 17th century sundials. Their exact origins are unclear, but their style arguably sits well with the building they offset. Each takes an octagonal form, with parallel steps and a pedestal on which four chunky she-monsters help support a weighty octagonal block featuring dials on each of its eight vertical panels. Atop this stands an obelisk carried by stone scrolls and masks. David Bryce altered the stables to the south of the abbey in 1875 by adding a barge-board gabled coachman's house and an imposing clock tower indicative of the tastes of the period. This L-plan block has more recently been converted to residential dwellings.

The RCAHMS collection contains more than 80 drawings, engravings and other items, and 245 photographs relating solely to the house itself, while nearly 100 other items relate to ancillary buildings and the surrounding policies. Together, this archive provides a comprehensive visual document of the diversity that has characterised the history of Newbattle.

Dallas Dhu Distillery
former maltings.

Dallas Dhu Distillery
tun-room.

Strathisla Distillery.

Strathisla Distillery mash
house and former kilns.

The NMRS holds collection material for a wide range of building types. Cataloguing material relating to Category 'A' listed buildings in accordance with Historic Buildings Fire Database Project (HBFD) has highlighted interesting distilleries. The Dallas Dhu Distillery and the Strathisla Distillery, both located in Moray, are good examples.

The Dallas Dhu Distillery [NJ05NW 77] lies 2km South of the Burgh of Forres, conveniently situated near the Altyre Burn, the barley growing land of the Laigh of Moray, and the former Forres to Aviemore railway line. Dallas Dhu was established in 1899 by Wright and Greg Ltd. of Glasgow, no doubt a result of the whisky boom that saw no fewer than nineteen new distilleries built in Moray and Banffshire alone between 1894 and 1899. The original buildings were designed by local architect C.C. Doig, who had gained a good reputation for designing economic and stylish distilleries. Before its closure in 1983 Dallas Dhu suffered very mixed fortunes. As well as closures in the 1930s and 1940s as a result of the economic depression and war-time restrictions on barley respectively, a fire on the 9th of April burned the still house and destroyed a large amount of distillery equipment. Reopened in 1988 by Historic Scotland and operated as a visitor attraction, Dallas Dhu remains notable for survival of traditional distilling fittings and machinery.

The Strathisla Distillery [NJ45SW 19], located on the River Isla, is the oldest operating distillery in the Highlands. It was established in 1786 as Milltown distillery by George Taylor and Alexander Milne. Over the years, the distillery passed into many different hands and was considerably rebuilt and enlarged, most recently in May 1951 when it was renamed Strathisla Distillery. Around this date it also underwent a large overhaul and renovation that also saw production increase. Amongst the many improvements were the addition of the Mash House (1960) and the installation of two additional steam heated stills (1965). The buildings which exist today date from the mid nineteenth century and later. The kiln for instance, with its twin pagoda roofs was constructed in the 1870s. It is believed to be only the second of its type to be built in Speyside, the first being built in Elgin by Charles Doig, architect of Dallas Dhu, known as Doig ventilators. The waterwheel by James Abernethy dated 1881 is now utilised solely for decorative effect, but serves as a reminder of the former days of water power.

RCAHMS holds interior and exterior photographs for both buildings, as well as aerial photographs, slides and manuscript material for Dallas Dhu.

South facade.

North front.

Drawing room.

Detail of drawing room
ceiling (hat and crook).

First floor plan by Lorimer
& Matthew, 1928.

Touch House, the ancient house of the Seton's, is situated 2.5km West of Cambusbarron near Stirling, at the foot of the Touch Hills. The building is a combination of 16th, 17th and 18th century work, the oldest remnant of which is the 16th century South-East tower which consists of four storeys and an attic. The mansion house forms the main South facing façade, with three storeys and seven bays built in Longannet ashlar by Gideon Gray. The three central bays support a richly decorated pediment with carved scrolls and the Seton Family heraldry.

Apart from building accounts, which refer to Gideon Gray of Stirling, and confirm the period of construction as 1757-62, there is no reference to the mansion's designer and its attribution remains uncertain.

The interior of the mansion is spacious with three rooms extending across the first floor, with a drawing-room in the centre, a dining-room at the East end and a bedroom at the West. Both the drawing room and dining room feature ornate ceiling plasterwork with delicate Rococo decoration by Thomas Clayton. On the top floor the rooms consist of two bedrooms and a music room. All of these rooms are accessed from the oval staircase, which provides a link between the mansion and the much older, lower, North range, where the rooms are smaller. Of note in the North range is a bedroom on the first floor where Bonnie Prince Charlie slept on 13 September 1745.

The low entrance hall of the mansion runs the depth of the 18th century house, at the North end of which is a large oval staircase, illuminated from above by a 24-light oval cupola. John Cornforth in Country Life (19, 26 August and 2 September 1965) said it was "skillfully designed so that one has the pleasing sensation of being drawn from a low and often, on grey Scottish days, rather dark rectangle, up the steps through the screen of columns to the much lighter and loftier circle of the staircase beyond. It is a subtle piece of planning, quite beyond William Adam, but not his sons, particularly if Robert was helping John." However, Sir Henry Seton-Steuart, who had married into the Seton family, was not as moved by the design, and proposed that the cupola be removed on the basis that it "could not keep out rain for one week". His wish was not realised and the cupola remains intact.

Sir Henry Seton-Steuart was the last Seton to occupy the house and two years before his death in 1930, he sold the estate to Mr C A Buchanan. Between 1927-8, Robert S Lorimer was employed to carry out various alterations to the house and estate. In 1940, Mr Buchanan offered the house as a military hospital and it was used as such until after the war when it operated as a civilian convalescent home. This finally closed in 1959, and the building was returned to its original use as a mansion house and family home.

RCAHMS holds many collection items for the Touch House Estate, including a number of aerial, exterior and interior photographs as well as plans and drawings.

1996 view after
refurbishment.

1993 view of ruin.

1993 view of ruin.

Dairsie Castle stands in a commanding position overlooking the river Eden at the top of a steep rise six miles East of St Andrews. The castle is a part of an architectural grouping which forms the historic core of the parish of Dairsie: the church, the castle and the 16th century bridge over the river at the foot of the escarpment.

The parish is ancient. In some of the earliest written references (c.1160) in the register of St Andrews Cathedral Priory, the name of Macmallothem, Thane of Dairsie, appears. This suggests the antiquity of Dairsie: a thanage was probably a prehistoric land subdivision (a self-contained agricultural and administrative unit to which the English term 'thanage' later became attached). In c.1660 Bishop Arnold confirmed an earlier grant of the church of 'Dervesy' to St Andrews Cathedral. The site, at the head of a bluff above a river, is typical of early church foundations. Evidence of earlier settlement includes a Bronze Age beaker discovered in the field of West Dairsie, while aerial photographs show enclosures and a ring ditch.

In 1616 the Learmonths sold Dairsie to Archbishop Spottiswoode (1565-1639). The Archbishop, the main agent of the policy of James VI and Charles I to reimpose bishops on the Presbyterian Church, used Dairsie as his base until his death, although his eldest son, John, officially held the property. In 1621 Spottiswoode built the church of St Mary's next to Dairsie Castle, on the site of an older church. It is said that John Spottiswoode composed much of his History of the Church of Scotland (published 1655) at Dairsie Castle.

In 1646, Sir John Spottiswoode sold Dairsie to his brother in-law, Sir George Morrison. In 1692, Dairsie passed to the Morrison's largest creditor, Alexander Bruce of Broomhall, later Earl of Kincardine. Major General John Scott of Scotstarvit (1725-1775) acquired Dairsie in 1774, along with vast tracts of Fife. His three daughters all inherited great wealth and married into the peerage. The eldest, Henrietta Scott, who became Marchioness of Titchfield and Duchess of Portland, inherited the Fife properties, including Dairsie. Dairsie then passed through several hands, being sold by the Duchess of Portland's trustees to John Barnes in 1804, who sold it on to John Gibson in 1806, thence to Henry Trail in 1810, and subsequently to the Erskine family.

When a new owner acquired the castle in 1992 to rebuild it as a family home (completed 1996), an archaeological excavation was initiated which indicated that the surviving fabric was earlier than previously believed. Finds during the excavation included fragments of Yorkshire pottery from the 14th century, Venetian glass, 17th century clay pipes and a cannon shaped water-sprout. The remains of a garden, including rigs and a paved surround were also uncovered, however there was a lack of architectural fragments.

RCAHMS holds numerous historic photographs featuring interior, exterior and aerial views of the castle, as well as various bibliographic references and news-cuttings relating to its rebuilding.