Forglen House
Significant development of the estate began when it was acquired by the family of Lord Banff and they started the work of landscaping and planting trees.
After the death of William Ogilvy, the eighth and final Lord Banff, the estate passed by marriage to the Abercromby baronets who continued to enhance the property and maintained it as their main residence.
Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet commissioned the Aberdeen City Architect, John Smith to design the present house in 1839.
The estate of Forglen (Foithir Gleann, meaning "the hollow of the vale" in Gaelic[1]) was one of the parcels of land added to the property of the abbots at the Abbey of Arbroath by King William the Lion prior to 1211.
[2] Charters indicate the Monymusk Reliquary[a] or Breccbennach was probably held at Forglen and the tenants were required to ride under the standard of the Arbroath abbots if called to defend king and kingdom.
Alexander Irvine of Drum raised a successful brieve (writ) mort d'ancestor at a specially arranged court in Aberdeen on 24 January 1414 claiming the lands of Forglen.
The session was overseen by the justiciary of the Arbroath abbots and held in the house of Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, a known supporter of the Irvine family who had fought alongside him in France and at the Battle of Harlaw, just north of Inverurie.
[7][8] The Ogilvy family were staunch Royalists and their properties, including Forglen, came under attack by the Covenanter forces led by General Robert Monro in 1640.
[9] The principal family seat at the time was Inchdrewer Castle and appears to have remained as the main residence until around 1713 when George Ogilvy, 3rd Lord Banff died in a fire there.
William, a former army captain who served under the Duke of York, continued the development of the estate until his death at Forglen on 4 June 1803.
[6][13] The Abercromby baronets owned a significant amount of property in Ireland, as most of the town of Fermoy had been purchased by them from John Anderson in the early 19th century.
[23] The first structure was probably a castle but was replaced with a vernacular harled house,[d] which had a tower wing extension erected during the late 18th century.
[e] Architectural historian Charles McKean[30] likened the central tower and gatehouse to the style of Robert Smythson and described the mansion house design as an "Elizabethan Gothic confection" that had "all the romantic aspirations of the early 19th century poured into it".
[25] Based on a courtyard house layout, externally the harled whinstone rubble mansion is a combination of Elizabethan and Jacobean (or Gothic[27]) design, similar to Smith's work at Slains.
A large Elizabethan-style tower housing the main stairway is also set within the courtyard but sited to the front behind the reception rooms.
[24] Other external features include: canted and box bays; a variety of lofty towers that are round, square or octagonal; many different gables; and numerous diagonally set stone flues.
The antler from an elk's skeleton, which had been found buried in the family's Fermoy estate, was mounted in the hall and the width between the tips was reported as more than 8 feet (2.4 m).
Enclosed inside the 3 metres (9.8 ft) high perimeter walls are greenhouses; and outside are several lean-to stores, potting sheds and a single-storey cottage for the gardener.
[e] Built in the shape of a cross, it has a round stained glass window in the front gable and features many gargoyles and other stone decorations.
[43][44] In 1906 some excavation work was undertaken by Scottish archaeologist J. Graham Callander[45][46] on a circular tumulus that is within the estate, just over half a mile to the south of the mansion.
