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Summary

Description

John Cameron, 1911-12 (dated 1911); contractor James Scott and Company, Aberdeen; some 1900 interior detail by George Bennet Mitchell reclaimed from Dunecht; ongoing restoration early 21st century. Unusual early concrete 2-storey and basement, 5-bay, U-plan with enclosed centre courtyard forming rectangular-plan, sub-baronial mansion house built as 'Spanish Villa' for Bolivian tin magnate (see Notes). Narrow crenellated towers, slim conical-roofed bartizans, crowstepped John Cameron, 1911-12 (dated 1911); contractor James Scott and Company, Aberdeen; some 1900 interior detail by George Bennet Mitchell reclaimed from Dunecht; ongoing restoration early 21st century. Unusual early concrete 2-storey and basement, 5-bay, U-plan with enclosed centre courtyard forming rectangular-plan, sub-baronial mansion house built as 'Spanish Villa' for Bolivian tin magnate (see Notes). Narrow crenellated towers, slim conical-roofed bartizans, crowstepped gables and some fine interior detail. Hennebique concrete, lime harled 2006, margined openings. Band courses, corniced windowheads, broad crenellated wallhead screening glazed courtyard (see Notes), mutuled crenelations to centre tower. Concrete mullioned bipartite and tripartite windows; hoodmould with label stops.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: symmetrical principal elevation to SW incorporating 3 stage centre tower with 2 narrow lights at ground, tripartite stair window under dated stepped hoodmould and corbelled canted window at 1st floor. Flanking slightly recessed bays (fronting courtyard) each with full-width part-glazed sliding timber screen doors and dividing concrete piers at ground (see Notes) giving way to 3 windows in screen wall at 1st floor. Courtyard covered by pitched glazed roof. Outer gables each with corniced square-plan bay rising through ground and 1st floor and bartizaned angles; full-width conservatory projecting at ground right. Further, taller square tower to rear elevation.

Plate glass glazing in timber sash and case windows (some replacement) throughout. Grey slates with small rooflights, fishscale pattern and decorative cast iron cockerel weathervanes to conical roofs. Banded and coped concrete stacks with full-complement of clay cans. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: much fine interior detail retained or reinstated during restoration (21st century). Decorative plasterwork; timber panelling and oak doors. Neo-Adam Christmas Room (former drawing room) with painted wall and ceiling panels. Billiard room retains original carved timber chimneypiece but some carved figures removed.

WALLED GARDEN: walled garden and terrace to SW of house. Coped rubble with terraced walls of large squared rubble blocks, snecked and flat-coped.

GATEPIERS, GATES AND BOUNDARY WALLS: rock faced, pyramidally-coped, square-section gatepiers with decorative ironwork pedestrian and vehicular gates; flat-coped snecked rubble quadrant and boundary walls.

Statement of Special Interest

Tillycorthie Mansion House is a rare structure, in terms of plan form, design and material. Early use of concrete, employed unusually for a country house of some size, combined with Scots Baronial external detail and a mix of interior styles result in a building of some quality and importance. The glazed courtyard is a particularly distinctive feature, with its entrance screen on the SW elevation. Built for James Rollo Duncan, Bolivian tin magnate, Tillycorthie 'is not quite the earliest concrete mansion to be built in Britain ... [and] it is a bewildering amalgam of the high-tech and the sub-baronial' (Shepherd). Sited close to the village of Udny, the Tillycorthie estate was purchased in 1899 by J R Duncan, a native of New Leeds, and partner in the firm Penny & Duncan Bolivia. The 1911 development also included the nearby artificial lake (formed from railway sleepers), a brick chimney rising in an adjacent field and served by a long underground flue, power-house and workshop with 24' wheel and skating rink on the roof, as well as two baronial lodges. Mr Duncan also built much of the village of Udny Station. John Cameron (attributed designer of Tillycorthie) is listed as 'builder' but not architect in Walker's Dictionary, he was also involved in building some houses at Udny. Some years ago there was a plan at the house entitled 'Plan of Ground, Spanish Villa, Tillycorthie, Udny'. This reference to Spanish architecture presumably derives from the original owner's business connections, and the lack of named architect leads to the conclusion that J R Duncan was probably responsible for much of the design. The current (2007) owner has learned from Duncan family descendants that they have an engraved crystal bowl which was presented to J R Duncan by the main contractors upon completion of the building. The covered courtyard, a huge span for a glass roof (now (2007) restored using sophisticated modern engineering techniques), was designed to accommodate the turning circle of Duncan's car, and housed a large granite fountain from New Market in Aberdeen. Hennebique's British agent L.G. Mouchel published plans and a list of works in 1920, providing evidence that the hollow-walled construction is entirely in Mouchel-Hennebique ferro-concrete (See Cusack, pp481-82, 543, 545). By 1969 Tillycorthie was in use as an agricultural store and during the 1980s it was unsympathetically converted into three separate dwellings. The George Bennet Mitchell chimneypiece from the Christmas Room and statues from niches in the Billiard Room chimneypiece were removed at this time. The current (2007) owner purchased the three separate dwellings and has returned Tillycorthie to a single property. Statement of special interest and references updated in 2017.

References

Bibliography

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