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Summary

Description

Circa 1853. 2-storey and attic irregular-plan Italianate villa with central 3-stage piended stair tower, rusticated conservatory to principal entrance to E. Central gabled 3-storey section to S elevation with flanking 2-storey dormered single bays. Rendered; painted margins. Hoodmoulds over ground and 1st floor windows; canted bay windows S and W. Arcarded bipartite windows to upper stage of tower. Overhanging eaves with double bracketed gables and finials.

INTERIOR: original layout almost completely preserved; original staircase, chimneypieces and shutters.

Predominantly 6-pane timber sash and case windows. Pitched roofs; piended stair tower; grey slates; diagonally set coped ashlar stacks.

BOUNDARY WALLS and GATEPIERS: high coped random rubble wall along Ferry Road; timber boarded door to garden off road; coped square-plan droved ashlar gatepiers; timber gate.

Statement of Special Interest

The land belonging to Craigdhu, originally part of the Ferry Barns estate, was feued in 1837 by the Guildry of Dunfermline and in 1853 was acquired by Robert Douglas, writer, Dunfermline, who most likely built the villa shortly after this date. Part of the original grounds to the E were disponed to the Dunfermline and Queensferry railway Company in April 1877, when land was required for the new railway line and Train Pier (see separate listing). Located in a prominent position on the Fife coast below the Forth Road Bridge, this fine mid-Victorian villa has been virtually unaltered except for minor additions and alterations to fireplace surrounds and some upgrading of upstairs bedrooms, completed by Shearer and Annand architects in 1938 for Captain Ronald T H Duff. The contemporary L-plan stables, located to the SW of the villa within its boundary walls, have been converted into a cottage dwelling called Craigdhu Cottage. Craigdhu is best known for the discovery in 1857 of a prehistoric burial mound from which three cists were found measuring circa 12-15m in circumference. The largest of the cists contained unburned bones and fragments of an urn inverted over a smaller urn and burnt bone. The smaller urn was donated to the National Museums of Scotland but the larger urn is thought to have crumbled on exposure to air. The position of the cairn is now thought to have been NW from the main entrance of the house.

References

Bibliography

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