Dunnottar House

[ev]

i thought dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre 

step forward robert william thomson of stonehaven 

ev

[Lass]

Hi Lass.
A friend has just loaned me a booklet, "Dunnottar Woods and House 1782-2008" in which you may be interested. It is by George D Swapp, OBE, DL, MA and was published in November last year by the Stonehaven Heritage Society, 50 Allardice Street, Stonehaven, AB39 2RA.  It has 48 pages but there is no mention of cost.

Thanks for that Isles, I'll contact the SHS and see if I can get hold of a copy, you're a treasure!

Lass x

[Lass]

Hi everyone!

Hope I'm not flogging a dead horse here, please forgive me, but even after all this time, I haven't been able to let this go!

I found this today:  http://www.rootschat.com/links/08kw/   and it's raised more questions for me than answers.  It clearly says that this Dunnottar House should not be confused with the one demolished in 1959 

Presuming the last paragraph in that link pertains to the manse house, then perhaps the wedding of my great great grandparents at 'Dunnottar House' wasn't as grand as I first thought!!  The last paragraph pertains to the land of Dunnottar House, including the farming land - this includes Upper Criggie and East Carmount, which is precisely where both sides of the family ancestors are to be found on the census, farming up to 121 acres. 

To be precise, the wedding was that of William Duthie and Mary Turriff (my great great grandparents) in 1855.  The marriage cert states they were married at the 'House of Dunnottar'.  At the time of their marriage, Mary's father Alexander Turriff was a Farmer of 121 acres at Upper Criggie.   At the time of the marriage, William was recorded as a Farm Servant at Criggie.  The 1861 census has them at Criggie, and William as a Ploughman. In 1871 they have popped away to Fetteresso where William is an Ag Lab.  They then return to East Carmount where William is recorded in the 1881 census as Farmer of 110 acres.  Upon his death 10 years later, his personal estate was £524.  I presume this would have been a lot of pennies in them days??

The reason that has reared it's head again is because I finally laid hands on a photo of my great grandparents, and in conversation with family it was brought up that great granny had been brought up 'well heeled' rather than as just a country farmer's daughter.  Of course this made me hark back to the wedding of her parents and gave me pause for thought that they were relatively well-to-do!

Lass x

[JamieL]

Hi Lass,

This is only speculation, of course, but if the "big house" was only demolished in 1959, I suspect that the former manse would not have been called Dunnottar House until some years afterwards. On that basis, my money is on the wedding being in the original house.

Jamie

[Isabel H]

The Statistical Accounts of Scotland 1834-45, mention both Dunnottar House (built 1806) and Dunnottar Manse (built 1786).

Are you absolutely sure the marriage certificate says House and not Manse? From transcriptions I have done recently, I have found that in some  handwriting the words "House" and "Manse" are almost indistinguishable one from the other. Unless your relatives had some actual connection to the House, eg through family or employment there, the manse would have been a more likely venue.

[genealpete]

Hello Jamie, Coplani, Lass and all

This is somewhat late in the day perhaps, but I would like to contribute as I am very interested in much of the information, and in particular the photographs, relating to Dunnottar House.   I am in the process of conducting genealogical research into the family of my partner whose great grandfather William Ritchie, a distiller in Stonehaven, lived with his family for many years in Dunnottar House.

As census records have William Ritchie and his family residing at Dunnottar House in 1881, 1891 and 1901, it would appear that they must have been tenants prior to purchasing the property around 1901 - from Charles Forbes?   As the photograph provided by Coplani was from around 1900, perhaps members of the Ritchie family are included.....unfortunately my fiance has no family photos from any period before the 1950's.  I wonder if Jamie and/or Coplani have any more information or photographs regarding the house around this period.   It is also of interest that William's brother David (wine and spirit merchant) lived for some time nearby at Netherley House - it seems that this house too was sold by the Forbes family in around 1901.

Regards Pete

Hi Lass

Charles McKay Forbes, who sold the house in 1900, was my great grandfather. My mother has the sale particulars at home, which have all the details of the house (albeit in Victorian estate agent speak!) and a few pictures. When I am at home over Christmas I will try to take some copies and post them.

If you could PM the picture you have at some point, I'd be very grateful.

IMJC - it's amazing to me to think that you actually lived there! I'm fascinated by the photos: I wonder if the earlier one has any of my relatives in it.

Best

Jamie

[JamieL]

Hi Pete

I'm afraid I don't have any photos of the house or occupants other than those I've already posted. However, I can certainly confirm that the family also sold Netherley House in 1901, and I also have the sale particulars for that sale (although not currently in digital form, sadly).

Regards

Jamie

[genealpete]

Hi again Jamie, and thank you very much for your response.
 
I was delighted to find your photographs of the Dunnottar House sale....I saved them and now have them linked to the entries regarding William Ritchie's family in my computerized family tree.
 
We have virtually no information regarding Netherley House, other than a couple of photographs - one has "Messrs. Lumleys Ltd, Land Agents" printed in the bottom right corner (possibly taken at the time of the sale in 1901?).   

Regards,  Pete

[coplani]

Hi,
We have just had a very pleasent day visiting Stonehaven.
Walked around Stonehaven and Dunnottar Woodlands, the old walled garden, the shell house and the ice house on hangman's hilltop.
Great exercise.....Along the way, we  bumped into an elderly person who resides near where Dunnottar house used to be. He has resided there since 1962.
He mentioned that the owner of Dunnottar House and surrounding area prior to it being demolished was an Andy Stewart, who was a scrap metal dealer in Stonehaven, and lived near Stonehaven harbour. Also had a antiques/ s/h furniture shop in Stonehaven until quite recently, I believe.
Before it's final demise, the house was stripped of anything of value, including the lead on the roof etc.
Then the house  + estate was sold to a trust (perhaps an insurance company)...This company finally demolished the house totally..around 1959.
I speculated that the Ritchies must have sold the house and estate to the scrap metal man, but when I do not know.
It appears that the surrounding area/ woodlands is now in the hands of the Forrestry Commission.
Regarding the old photograph, I'm afraid, that this was found in my mother's collection and we really do not know anything more about it...I suspect that it was found in Dunnottar when we lived there.