Ruskin Lane Consulting Autumn 2013 | Page 52

MEMBERS AREA

ACTIVITIES
MEMBERS AREA

Tayside & East Fife

AGM at Pitkerro. Image © Peter Davidson

Dundee Conservation Lectures
The Group continued with the jointly
organised programme of eight double
lectures at fortnightly intervals, comprising
the Dundee Conservation Lectures, over
the winter months. The series began in
1992-93 as separate programmes for the
AHSS (the very first talk was by the then
newly elected AHSS President Alistair
Rowan), and a guest lecture series for
postgraduate conservation students, which
took place on consecutive evenings in the
same place. These were combined into a
16-week annual series in 1993-94. The last
series marked the 20th year of the joint
series and the 21st continuous year of the
Group’s programme. The complete series
programmes can be found on the
University’s web site (search on ‘Dundee
Conservation lectures’).
Technical lectures about understanding
and repairing buildings were provided by
Paul Higginson of Arc Architects in Cupar,
Craig Frew of Craig Frew Building
Conservation in Kirkcaldy on sandstone
decay, Paul Beaton of Historic Scotland on
sash windows and series co-organiser Neil
Grieve on Scottish roofs and their detail.
Ellie McCrone, Historic Scotland’s Head of
Listing and Designed Landscapes spoke to
us about the current listing programme
and about listed transport buildings. For
something a bit different, Charles McKean
introduced Scottish film maker Murray
Grigor, who showed us his remarkable
‘then and now’ double screen film ‘Space

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Tayside & East Fife members at Gagie House. Image © Adam Swan

and Light Revisited’, about the Cardross
Seminary, followed by ‘Sir John Soane: an
English architect, an American legacy’. In
February Elain Harwood of English
Heritage gave us a beautifully illustrated
talk on post-war architects’ houses. Her
forthcoming book will be well worth
getting! In March our first evening was
about Sicily, with Peter Burman describing
its architecture, archaeology and museums
accompanied by more stunning
photography. Our final evening involved
the houses and gardens of Argyll, with
Mary Gibby discussing the restoration of
the unique Victorian fernery at Benmore
Botanic Garden and that of its not too
distant neighbour at Ascog Hall on Bute.
Michael Davis rounded off the lecture
series with a fascinating presentation of
personal reflections about country houses
on the Cowal shore.
The 2013-14 series will resume in midOctober on Tuesday evenings at 6.00pm in
the University of Dundee’s Matthew
Building (Duncan of Jordanstone College),
Room 5013.
Group visits
The Group’s Summer Activities
programme began with our combined
Angus Chateaux visit and AGM on
Saturday 15th June. Our first visit was to
Gagie House, home of our Hon Treasurer
and committee member Clare and France
Smoor, and we began with a leisurely tour
around the walled garden, then coffee and

THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND

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AUTUMN 2013

cake in the dining room, before venturing
out further then returning for a full tour of
the house. Gagie is a stunning white-harled
laird’s house originally belonging to the
Guthries, with earliest parts dating from
1610. It has late Georgian, late Victorian
and later 20th century additions and
alterations. The walled garden is 17th
century and there is a classical
summerhouse of 1762, a contemporary
one of 2002, and various historic and
restored ancillary buildings.
We picnicked inside at Gagie and then
headed to nearby Pitkerro for our 19th
AGM and associated visit, hosted by John
and Pauline Baruffati, Mrs Baruffati senior
and their neighbours. Pitkerro is also a
white-harled laird’s house but is bigger and
has its origins in a 1534 house, now part
of the southeast wing. This range evolved
and was gently extended over the years.
Then, in 1902-04, Robert Lorimer
remodelled it and added a much larger
northwest range including a chapel for LtCol A C Douglas Dick in the 17th century
Scottish domestic style. The Dicks
relocated after WWII and it became home
several Catholic families who divided it up
with minimum physical alteration, and
continue to enjoy and look after it.
Members were able to view the stunning
gardens, the whole exterior, and also
inside, to three separate apartments for
lower parts of the earlier house and the
chapel and Lorimer wing, ending up in the
beautifully restored first floor Lorimer