Dumfries House

Coordinates: 55°27′18″N 4°18′29″W / 55.455°N 4.30806°W / 55.455; -4.30806

Dumfries House from south

Dumfries House, circa 1811.

Dumfries House is a Palladian country house in Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located within a large estate, around 3 km west of Cumnock. It was built in the 1750s by John Adam and Robert Adam for William Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries, and inherited in due course by the Marquesses of Bute, in which family it remained until 2007. It is notable for having preserved much of its original 18th-century furniture in situ, some of which was specially commissioned for the house from Thomas Chippendale.

History

Old doocot at Dumfries House, dated 1671.

The house was designed and built between 1754 and 1759, by John and Robert Adam, although the style of the house is more in keeping with John Adam's other work.^[1] Robert Adam oversaw construction until his departure on the "Grand Tour" of Europe.^[2] As such it represents an early independent work by the Adam Brothers, who had taken over the architecture business of their father William Adam on his death in 1748. The house is a finely proportioned, if unoriginal, Palladian design, with a three-storey central block connected to smaller pavilions by linking wings.^[1]

In 1885, the then-owner John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute commissioned Robert Weir Schultz to design the pavilions.^[1]

2007 sale

Dumfries House from the west.

the multi-faced lectern style sundial.

The family of the Marquesses has always had its main residence at Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute. In summer 2004 it was announced that the present owner, the 7th Marquess, was intending to sell the house, contents and estate; and by early 2007 continued attempts to purchase it for preservation by the National Trust for Scotland had fallen through.^[3] The house was scheduled for sale through Savills and its contents for auction by Christie's. It was thought that some of the art and furniture might fetch nearly as much as the house itself; one Chippendale rosewood bookcase, for example, was valued at £2m-£4m.^[4] Preservationists and campaigns such as Save Britain's Heritage lamented the imminent dispersal of an ensemble said to have remained virtually untouched since an 1803 inventory.^[4]

On 27 June 2007 it was announced that a consortium, led by HRH The Prince of Wales, including various heritage charities and the Scottish Government, had raised £45 million to purchase the house and contents (along with its roughly 2,000-acre (8.1 km²) estate) and to endow a trust for maintaining it. This is to be called "The Great Steward of Scotland's Dumfries House Trust" — a reference to the title Great Steward of Scotland held by Prince Charles in his Scottish role as the Duke of Rothesay. A major element of the financial package was a £20m loan backed by The Prince's Charities Foundation.

The Great Steward of Scotland's Dumfries House Trust, is sometimes referred to as being one of The Prince's Charities.

Dumfries House opened to the public for pre-booked tours on 6 June 2008.^[5]

His Royal Highness has pledged that Dumfries House will revitalise the local economy once again and contribute to the community; although in order to do this some of the House's preserved and unused furniture may need to be sold as there is no more revenue to keep the house soon, despite the Prince's investment in the House.^[6]

See also

• Terringzean Castle

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Close, Rob (1992) Ayrshire and Arran: An Illustrated Architectural Guide, RIAS, pp.140-141
2. ^ Glendinning, Miles, MacKechnie, Aonghus, & MacInnes, Ranald (1996) A History of Scottish Architecture, Edinburgh University Press p.128
3. ^ Tim Cornwell (2007-06-05). "Bid to save house for nation looks doomed". The Scotsman. http://heritage.scotsman.com/news.cfm?id=875032007. Retrieved 2007-06-28. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Auslan Crumb (2007-06-28). "Charles saves Dumfries House at 11th hour". London: The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/28/ndumfries128.xml. Retrieved 2007-06-28. 
5. ^ "Welcome to Dumfries House". "The Great Steward of Scotland's Dumfries House Trust". 2008-06-07. http://www.dumfries-house.org.uk/. Retrieved 2008-06-07. 
6. ^ Singh, Anita (2008-12-17). "The Prince of Wales appears on Antiques Roadshow". London: "The Daily Telegraph". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/3814403/The-Prince-of-Wales-appears-on-Antiques-Roadshow.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 

Sources and external links

• Dumfries House Official Website
• Official announcement from Clarence House (2007-06-27). "Dumfries House saved for the nation". http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/dumfries_house_saved_for_the_nation_656279566.html. Retrieved 2007-06-27. 
• Press release, from the Art Fund (2007-06-27). "Dumfries House saved for the nation". http://www.artfund.org/news/587. Retrieved 2007-06-28. 
• SAVE Britain's Heritage (May 2007). "SAVE Dumfries House for Scottish and World Heritage". Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20070814051922/http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/dumfries.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-28. 
• Tim Cornwell (2007-06-28). "Prince steps in with £20m to save Scottish furniture treasure hoard". The Scotsman. http://heritage.scotsman.com/news.cfm?id=1006252007. Retrieved 2007-06-28. 
• Jenny Booth (2007-06-27). "Prince Charles saves Dumfries House for nation". London: The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1993673.ece. Retrieved 2007-06-28. 
• Annabel Freyberg (2011-05-27). "Dumfries House: a Sleeping Beauty brought back to life by the Prince of Wales". London: The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/8533968/Dumfries-House-a-Sleeping-Beauty-brought-back-to-life-by-the-Prince-of-Wales.html. Retrieved 2011-05-27.