Borgue Old House
| Borgue Old House | |
| Kirkcudbrightshire | |
|---|---|
| |
| Type: | Tower house |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NX63354820 |
| Location: | 54°48’36"N, 4°7’40"W |
| Village: | Borgue |
| History | |
| Information | |
Borgue Old House is a ruined Y-plan house, about 350 yards east of Borgue in Kirkcudbrightshire.[1] Built in 1680,[2] but probably incorporating the fabric of an older building, its large main block has two projecting wings at either end of its south face; another wing in the middle of the north face probably contained the stairway, but this is no longer present. Each of the two main stories has three interconnecting rooms, on in each of the wings on the south face, and one in the main block. The main block would also have had an attic, but it is now roofless.[3]
The house is a Category A listed building.[4]
The main entrance, with molded stonework surround, is in the south face of the main block. Also in the south wall is a surviving chimney which rises above the wall level. [1] On the ground floor is a large mantelpiece, with a lintel supported by corbels; architectural historian John Gifford asserts that this fireplace cannot be older than the early seventeenth century, and thus must be part of the older building that the house was built around.[1] There is a single-storey building attached to the south-east wing, which probably formed part of a courtyard when the building was in use,[5] and there is a large garden, probably laid out in the eighteenth century, partially enclosed by rubble walls.[6] Nearby is the current Borgue House, a nineteenth-century mansion, which is still in use.[1]
Borgue Old House was the home of Hugh Blair of Borgue, a notably eccentric laird.
As of 2014, the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland records that the upper parts of the walls and chimneys are precariously balanced, and that the inside is overgrown.[2]
Outside links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Gifford 1996, p. 133.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 BARR:Borgue Old House.
- ↑ Hume 2000, p. 169.
- ↑ Borgue Old House (Category A) - Listing detail (Historic Environment Scotland)
- ↑ Historic Environment Scotland LB3393.
- ↑ Gifford 1996, p. 134.
- "Borgue Old House, Borgue". https://www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/details/892953.
- Gifford, John (1996). The Buildings of Scotland:Dumfries and Galloway. London: Penguin. ISBN 0140-71067-1.
- Historic Environment Scotland LB3393 Retrieved 5 April 2021.
- Houston, Rab; Frith, Uta (2000). Autism in History: The Case of Hugh Blair of Borgue. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-22088-6.
- Hume, John R (2000). Dumfries and Galloway: An Illustrated Architectural Guide. Edinburgh: The Rutland Press. ISBN 1-873-190-344.