Cairness House is an unforgettable, rather severe but also impossibly romantic house built in unique Cairness granite from the estate quarry. It is ideally situated on gently rising ground facing south-west with views down to Mormond Hill and over its own parkland. Cairness is in fact one of the rarest and most important neoclassical houses in Scotland. It represents the ‘finest product of an extraordinary but still largely unrecognised talent’ (D Walker & C McWilliam, ‘Cairness, Aberdeenshire - I’, Country Life, 28 January 1971, p. 184) - the work of the Scottish architect, James Playfair.

His enlightened patron at Cairness was Charles Gordon (1749-1796) of Cairness and Buthlaw, descended from the Barclays of Cairness. The house is the second built on the site, although the first was short lived, having been built by the Edinburgh architect Robert Burn in 1782-3. Gordon came into wealth in 1783 and decided to enlarge the recently built house and engaged Playfair to design a much grander house, which he did in 1789. Proposals for the building were estimated at £5,886 16s and it was completed shortly after Gordon’s death in 1796.

Unquestionably one of the purest examples of Grecian neoclassical architecture in these Isles, it is equalled only by Townley in Co. Louth and Belsay, Northumberland. The bold Greek classicism reflects earlier French designs by Ledoux and parallels can be drawn with interiors by Sir John Soane. The Egyptian Room was the first of its kind in Britain (designed in 1793) and contains elaborate hieroglyph plasterwork.

The iconography of the entire house incorporates a complex mixture of Masonic and pagan symbols as well as many numerological and architectural details. It is a ‘calendar house’, where the quantities and elements of its design reflect the days, months and weeks of the year, seasons etc. Its ground plan displays an adjoining “C” and “H”, variously standing for Cairness House and Charles Gordon.

Gordon’s son Major-General Thomas Gordon (1788–1841) was also noted as a philhellene, friend of Lord Byron, and supporter of and hero of the Greek War of Independence. Gordon’s celebrated History of the Greek Revolution was published internationally and went through several editions - and is still in print.

The Gordon family sold the estate in 1937 to the Countess of Southesk and during the Second World War, the house was rented to the Consolidated Pneumatic Tool Company of Fraserburgh as evacuation premises for their London head office. After the war, the house was used as a farmhouse (perhaps the grandest in these Isles?) and gradually fell into decline. The surrounding parkland was cleared in the 1950s to make way for farmland.

The most recent owners purchased Cairness at the turn of the millennium and boldly threw themselves into an immense restoration project, recovering and restoring Cairness’s Grecian interiors and returning the house to its original cool splendour. Although the restoration is still on-going, their fortitude, sensitivity and perseverance was rewarded in 2009 when the project won the Georgian Group Architectural Award for best restoration of a Georgian country house in Britain. In the award citation, the judges remarked that “From being a moribund building at risk riddled with dry rot, Cairness is now a magnificent private home.” The prize was presented by HRH The Duke of Gloucester in November 2009.

The furnishings now offered for sale from Cairness - which has found new owners - were carefully selected to adorn the singular interiors. The collectors were able to buy a bravura portrait of Frederick, Duke of York by Sir Thomas Lawrence, the spendthrift brother of George IV, and the delightful and lively full length portrait of Mrs William Colquhoun of Wrotham, Norfolk by Francis Cotes. The entire house was harmoniously furnished with delightful works of art - many with local, Scottish or fascinating connections or ownership histories - such as a 17th century Flemish historical tapestry from Monymusk House, Aberdeenshire, and a bust of the great statesman-diplomatist Lord Castlereagh by Sir Francis Chantrey from Londonderry House.

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Auction Details

Town and Country: The Collections from Cairness House and a Historic Townhouse on Wimpole Street

Wednesday 31 January, 10.30am GMT
Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE

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