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• Type

  Map

  Title

  Map for Dales House excluding the single-storey extension at the rear, the glazed porch addition on the west elevation, detached garage, boundary walls and the separate walled garden to the southeast, Peterhead (LB16392)

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600025770)

Summary

Description

Dales House is a detached, single-storey and attic, three-bay, symmetrical, cottage orné style house, dating from around 1800. It is constructed in harled granite with smooth grey granite dressings, including narrow corner margins and cavetto splays to the openings. There is a granite base course, cill course at the ground floor and a moulded eaves course. The openings in the front elevation are four-centred arches with Gothick tracery. The house is in Dales Park in Peterhead.

The front (south) elevation has a distinctive bowed and ashlar porch at the centre with a moulded cornice. The porch has an arched entrance with a fanlight above bearing the name: Dales House. The entrance door is a replacement. Flanking the entrance are curved window panes. Above the entrance is an ogee-gabled dormer breaking the eaves which has moulded and painted timber surrounds and a finial.

The east and west elevations each have a flat-roofed canted bay window with granite mullions and cills. There are three attic box dormers on the west elevation.

Dales House has a mixture of glazing patterns, including 12-pane glazing in the canted bay windows and 20-pane glazing in the attic dormers. The frames are predominantly timber sash and case, with some later casement replacements at the rear and sides of the property.

The slated roof curves down at the corners at the front and is pitched at the rear. There are slated box dormers, three on the west pitch and two on the east pitch. The house has end chimneystacks with distinctive triple diamond-shaped chimneystacks with tall clay pots at the front.

The interior, seen in 2019, has been largely modernised but is in keeping with a 19th century period style, including moulded cornicing, decorative panelling, moulded architraves and panelled timber doors.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: the single-storey extension at the rear, the glazed porch addition on the west elevation, detached garage, boundary walls and the separate walled garden to the southeast.

Historical development

The Dales estate is not shown on pre-19th century maps. The current listed building record and the Buildings of Scotland (p.354) dates the house to around 1800.

Dales House (formerly known as Dales Cottage) was the country residence of James Arbuthnot of Invernettie and Dales (1821-1873). James's wife, Eleanor, gave birth to a son at Dales Cottage in 1850 (Forfar and Kincardineshire Advertiser) which dates the building to before 1850.

The building is first shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1868, published 1869) and is marked as Dales Cottage. It is shown with the canted bay windows on the east and west elevations, a porch to the front elevation and an L-shaped rear. The Buildings of Scotland notes the bay windows and porch were added later (p.354).

The Ordnance Survey Name Book, written between 1865 and 1871, describes Dales Cottage as a large and substantial cottage with offices and garden attached, and a home farm to the southwest, in the ownership of James Arbuthnot. The 1st Edition Map shows Dales House in a small-scale country estate setting with typical buildings and landscape features including a gatelodge, private drive, walled garden and a farm. Dales Cottage remained in Arbuthnot ownership until around 1900 when it was sold to Henry Mitchell, procurator-fiscal for the burgh of Peterhead (Aberdeen Press and Journal).

Dales Cottage became known as Dales House sometime between 1924 (as shown on the 3rd Edition Ordnance Survey map) and 1954 when the Dales estate was advertised for sale (Aberdeen Evening Express). The sale included Dales House (and policy enclosures), the home farm, walled garden, lodge cottage and Grieve's cottage.

Large parts of the Dales estate farmland was sold off to Aberdeenshire Council in 1974. Dales Industrial Estate was developed in the southwestern part of the former estate policies (including Home Farm) and Dales Park was created from the remaining green space and surrounds the house and walled garden. A U-plan building, likely estate offices or stables, to the west of Dales House was demolished, sometime in the mid-20th century and a house was built on this site after 1997.

In the 1954 sales advert the walled garden was described with glasshouses, cold frames, heating system and potting sheds and operated as a commercial market garden. The Ordnance Survey map of 1973 shows three rectangular sheds. No visible remains of these structures or the former horticultural use of the walled garden can be seen (2019).

Dales House was renovated around 2007 following a period of being unoccupied and may have sustained fire damage. Works included the addition of boundary walls, a detached double garage at the rear of the property, and internal alterations and extensions to the house. (Aberdeenshire Council Planning Portal)

Dales House and the walled garden are now in separate ownership (2019).

Statement of Special Interest

Dales House meets the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:

• It is an early 19th century small country villa designed in the distinctive and relatively rare cottage orné style.
• Its front elevation is largely unaltered and has good stonework and architectural detailing. This includes that the sweeping roof, Gothick tracery windows and ogee-shaped dormer.
• Its interior has been sympathetically refurbished and retains the 19th century character, style and internal plan form of the house.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: the single-storey extension at the rear, the glazed porch addition on the west elevation, detached garage, boundary walls and the separate walled garden to the southeast.

Architectural interest:

Design

Dales House is a distinctive small-scale country villa designed in a cottage orné style. This eclectic style of domestic architecture became popular in Scotland in the first quarter of the 19th century and stems from the 18th century English Romantic period and interest in the Picturesque. It is characterised by decoratively carved bargeboarding and highly decorative gothic-inspired ornamentation (known as 'Gothick') which was typically used for estate architecture. The architect of Dales House is unknown.

The symmetrical front elevation of Dales House with pointed arched openings, Gothick tracery windows and central, ogee-gabled dormer are distinctive architectural features and is largely unaltered. The house has good quality stonework details such as its moulded cill and eaves courses and cornicing on the porch. The curving roofline on the front elevation is a particularly striking design feature. White suggests that the shape of the roof may indicate that it was originally thatched (p.149).

The early footprint of the house is retained and the later additions to the rear and side elevations do not adversely affect the plan form of the building. The granite construction is characteristic of the northeast of Scotland and is traditional for this area.

Much of the interior was replaced during refurbishment works around 2007. The interior decorative scheme is in keeping with the 19th century character and style of the house, with the refurbished interior detailing based on surviving fragments. This includes moulded cornicing with beaded detailing, pointed arched openings with fanlights above, moulded architraves and timber window shutters.

Setting

Following the breaking up and selling off of the Dales estate from the 1970s and extensive housing development to the north, the wider setting of Dales House is very altered since that shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1868). The Home Farm buildings have been demolished and the U-plan building to the west of the house has been replaced by a late-20th century house.

Nonetheless, Dales House remains a distinctive building within the landscape. Some of its estate setting can be seen, as the building remains accessed by a drive which appears to follow largely the same path as that shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1868).

Other surviving estate buildings, including the gatelodge (not listed) and walled garden (excluded from the listing), are all contemporary with the house. The gatelodge also has some cottage orné style features showing the functional relationship between this and the house.

Historic interest:

Age and rarity

The cottage orné style was popular for small-scale domestic or estate architecture in Scotland for a short period in the early-19th century. Surviving examples, such as gate lodges or sporting buildings, as well as estate villages. Its use here as the main house of a minor country estate, once on the outskirts of Peterhead, is particularly distinctive within the town and its survival is of interest.

Social historical interest

For its building type and date there is no special interest under this heading.

Association with people or events of national importance

There are no associations with persons or events of national importance.

James Arbuthnot of Invernettie and Dales was the son of George Arbuthnot of Invernettie (1775-1847), a cotton manufacturer in Glasgow and, later, the first Provost of Peterhead in 1833. The New Statistical Account of 1845 shows the Arbuthnots were prominent landowners in the Peterhead area. The association is considered to be of local interest.

Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2020. Previously listed as 'Dales'.

References

Bibliography

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.

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