Crimonmogate House

Crimonmogate House, also known as Crimon-Mogat or Crimmond-Moggat House,^[1] is a Greek Revival style Category A listedStructure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. mansion within the Crimonmogate estateEstate near Crimond, Aberdeenshire, dating back to the 14th century in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Built in about 1825, it was designed by the Scottish architect Archibald Simpson.^[2]

The initial construction was quoted as costing up to £10,000,^[3] equivalent to about £11 million as at 2024.^[a]Calculated using the labour cost of the project.^[4] The work was commissioned by the merchant Patrick MilneWealthy Scottish merchant, politician, and landowner; commissioned Aberdeen architects to design two houses., who died at the Crimonmogate House, Union Street, Aberdeen on 16 May 1820,^[5] before the house was completed in 1825.^[6]

In 2001 the then owner of the Crimonmogate estate, Christopher Monckton, the third Viscount of Brenchley, put the property up for sale. He claimed that he had been forced to do so to help cover the prize money of $1 million he had to pay out after Eternity, a 209-piece 3D jigsaw he had invented, was solved years sooner than he had expected.^[7]

The estate was bought by the former Chanel Allure perfume model Candida Bond and her husband, William Stanhope, Viscount Petersham, shortly after their marriage in 2001.^[8] It is now used to host functions, and was one of the first places in Aberdeenshire to be licensed for civil ceremonies.^[9]

Architecture

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Exterior

The house is in two storeys with a single storey centre section.^[2] Constructed with granite from Kemnay, the house has a Greek Doric three-quarter height porticoPorch leading to the entrance of a building, its roof supported by columns and with a pedimented gable. with six columns set to the centre of the south-facing front elevation. The unfluted columns do not feature any entasis; combined with very small capitals, this gives an overall optical illusion of greater size.^[10] Three of the seven windows on the east front are centred and bowed.^[2]

In about 1860 a third storey was added to provide more sleeping accommodation,^[b]Historic Scotland and McKean refer to c. 1860; Miller dates the alterations to 1864. and a mansard roof was set on top of the old roof.^[11] Charles McKean, an authority on Scottish architectural history,^[12] described this extension as “lumpish”, and felt it compromised the purity and elegance of the house;^[13] Miller felt it “introduces an unlooked for, slightly Germanic, flavour to the exterior”.^[11] A one-storey extension – intended as a dining room that could also be used as a ballroom – was also added to the east front, with a broad bay window looking out to the garden.^[11]

Interior

Internal features are mainly simple yet distinctive,^[2] except for the central hall, which is reached through a short foyer.^[10] The hall is described by McKean as: “a perfect cube, its proportions emphasised by tall, fluted Corinthian columns which lead up to a magnificent corniceHorizontal moulding crowning a building or part of a building, such as over a door or window, or at the junction of an interior wall and ceiling. and a coffered-ceiling, a glazed dome at the centre”.^[14] The pilastersDecorative architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column, to articulate an extent of wall. are marble painted and frieze are also present.^[10] The main staircase and the billiard room are sited behind the hall.

The east wing had three rooms: the morning room; the drawing room with a segmental bow; and the dining room. When the ballroom/dining room extension was added in 1860, the former dining room was re-styled as a library. The basement, which extends below the entire mansion, housed the kitchen and other service rooms.^[15]