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During the Urquhart tenure in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries the house was extended with the addition of two wings running parallel and eastwards, a large joining wall connected these wings to create a substantial courtyard mansion house to reflect the status of the family at that time. There are four paintings dated 1772/73 that show the house in this style and the size that it had become. It was James Urquhart of Meldrum that commissioned Archibald Simpson to redesign the house in 1836 to remove the "air of neglect" that had become noticeable. Simpson's design took 3 years to complete and provided a Jacobean style mansion house of symmetrical design in a large C shape, with grand Portico entrance and turreted pavilions to a total of 86 rooms. The last Urquhart Laird was Major Beauchamp Colclough Urquhart who was killed at the Battle of Attbara in the Sudan on Good Friday 8th April 1898. The estate then passed to his sister, Annie Isabella, who had married her first cousin Garden Alexander Duff of Hatton. Their son, Colonel Garden Beauchamp Duff, was to become Laird of Hatton and Meldrum, and it was Lady Doris Duff who commissioned W.L. Duncan to redesign the house in 1934. This saw the removal of the turreted pavilion and a complete story of the main house to leave the L shaped house of today.
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Meldrum
House Hotel Golf & Country Estate, Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, Scotland,
UK, AB51 0AE, Tel : +44 1651 872294 |