The first house Robert Adam ever built in Scotland — one he created just after he returned from his Grand Tour — is for sale, after many happy years being lovingly cared for by its American owners.
As with the proverbial London bus, it can be a long wait before a Robert Adam house comes along, then, amazingly, two come along at once.
Just the other day a home called Newliston came to the market, and now another is for sale: the exquisite, Category A-listed Letterfourie at Drybridge in Moray. It’s Adam’s most northerly house, the first built by him in Scotland on returning from his Grand Tour, and (like Newliston) the £2.95m sale is being handled by Evelyn Channing of Savills.
The imposing Letterfourie. Robert Adam was never one to do anything by halves.
Mrs Channing recalls that its American owners, one of whom is an architectural historian, couldn’t believe that they could actually buy an Adam house, which they did in 2014, since when they have lovingly restored and refurbished it.
The attention to detail that they’ve put in speaks for itself, as you’ll see from the pictures here.
The property has been in the care of an American architectural historian, and has been lovingly looked after.
She seeks ‘offers over £2.95m’ for Letterfourie, one of Moray’s largest Georgian houses set at the heart of a secluded, 308-acre estate, three miles from the magnificent Moray Firth coastline.
The farmhouse style kitchen, with central island.
It was built as a home for two bachelor brothers of the Gordon clan on their return to Scotland from Madeira, where John Gordon, the fifth laird, and his brother Alexander, became successful wine merchants, both being staunch Jacobites who were forced to flee after the Battle of Culloden.
The well-stocked library.
In 1772, James Gordon, the 6th laird of the clan, commissioned Adam to design Letterfourie House, the original drawings for which are held at the Adam archive at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. Built of pinkish granite, it features a central block with two wings forming a U-plan court and was completed the following year.
Close up of the central block and its flanking wings, from the rear.
The brothers being devout Roman Catholics, the house included a private chapel in the west wing with accommodation for a priest.
Today, it offers 15,412sq ft of supremely comfortable accommodation on four floors, including four principal reception rooms, 11 bedrooms and five bathrooms, with the boiler room, wine cellars, workshop and stores on the lower-ground floor.
One of the 11 bedrooms within the property, which is set over four floors.
Wonderful landscaped gardens provide a breathtaking setting for the house, with the restored 19th-century Letterfourie fountains a focal point. More than a million bulbs have been planted in recent years and the grounds come alive in spring with snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells.
The land, comprising 167 acres of arable or pasture land and 139 acres of woodland and rough grazing, is currently farmed under contract by a local farmer.
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