Visit to Marine Operations Centre, Aberdeen Harbour and Guided Boat Tour of the Harbour

Members who are interested in this event should note that there will be a cap of twenty on the number of participants. Places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

This distinctive contemporary building was designed by Archial and opened in 2006. The boat tour will take approximately 45mins.

£15 (to include all fees)

Summer Party at Arthur Lodge, Edinburgh

With thanks to Dr and Mrs Bannatyne Brown, we are privileged to have our summer party at Arthur Lodge, Newington, a most elegant villa probably by Thomas Hamilton.

Members are warmly encouraged to bring guests as potential members of the Society. £15

Apply for tickets from Caroline McFarlane: tel. 0131 332 2715, caroline.mcfarlane@gmail.com

Day Study Tour to Ford and Etal

A trip over the border to look at these interesting villages with their castles, halls and churches, which make a fascinating contrast to their nearby Scottish equivilants.

8.30am-7pm. By coach. Meet on the west side of Charlotte Square. Bring a picnic lunch. £30

Apply for tickets from Caroline McFarlane: tel.0131 332 2715, caroline.mcfarlane@gmail.com

Modern Architecture in an Historic Setting

Evening walk around George Square and Quartermile. We will look at recent developments around George Square, and visit the recently-completed Chapel of St Albert the Great, shortlisted for the 2013 RIAS Awards. We will then continue on to the new Quartermile development, finishing with a drink there, with many thanks to Jane and Ronald Duff.

6.30pm Meet outside Archers' Hall, at corner of Buccleuch Street & Boroughloch. £10

Apply for tickets from Caroline McFarlane: tel. 0131 332 2715, caroline.mcfarlane@gmail.com

Sunday 14th July, 11.00am

Study day starting at Cambo, near Kingsbarns. Cambo is described as a large Italianate Georgian villa, and was designed for the Erskine family by Wardrop & Reid architects in 1879-81. There are older ancilliary buildings, doocot, walled garden, mausoleum, gates and lodges, gamekeeper’s house. The gardens are renowned and an attraction in their own right. There is a tearoom and visitor centre and ambitions plans to reroof and restore the stables by Page/Park architects.

Then to Balcaskie, just north of St Monans, a lair’d house begun in 1629 but of major importance as the first substantial work of Sir William Bruce who acquired it in 1665. Balcaskie passed via Steuarts to the Anstruthers by 1700, and substantial alterations and rebuilding occurred thereafter, notably by William Burn in the 1820s and 30s and further mid 19^th century work to Bruce’s terraced gardens. Now undergoing a renaissance under a new generation of the family. Then to Anstruther for a walking tour

Cost: £15, for donations to the stables restoration at Cambo & NTS for Balcaskie. Bring a picnic or money for tearoom lunch at Cambo.

Study Day Tour

Knockroon and the new developments in the Stable Block and outbuildings of Dumfries House

Day Tour to Abbotsford and the Borders

A tour to visit the recently re-opened Abbotsford and to look at the buildings and landscapes of Sir Walter Scott, led by Andrew Martindale.

9am-5pm. By Coach. Meet on the west side of Charlotte Square. Bring a picnic lunch or take the opportunity to purchase lunch at Abbotsford. £30

Apply for tickets from Caroline McFarlane: tel. 0131 332 2715, caroline.mcfarlane@gmail.com

Saturday 10th August

A highlight of the AHSS 2012 national study tour was the afternoon in Strathardle, near Bridge of Cally. Glenericht house is an early 19^th century shooting lodge near the river, accessed by a stunning wrought iron suspension bridge of c.1835 by Justice of Dundee. The villa was extended in 1900-01 and again in the 1930s for Alexander Dick Grimmond and remains remarkably secluded. Nearby is Blackcraig, a holiday house version of Patrick and Elizabeth Allan-Fraser’s spectacular and highly idiosyncratic principal residence Hospitalfield in Arbroath.  Here inspiration is taken from more modest tower houses of the 16th and 17th centuries and this is very advanced for 1856. This is a fascinating precursor of the approach to baronial architecture taken by late 19th century architects. Nearby are a walled garden with pavilions and (in separate ownership) a remarkable access bridge transformed by the addition of a two storey gatehouse, adorned with substantial turrets, bartizans and gables and provides a fitting prelude to the castle.

Cost: £15. Bring a picnic! Possible afternoon tea at Bridge of Cally Hotel, a mid 19^th century fishing inn.

Study Day at Hopetoun House

A joint event with the Garden History Society of Scotland led by Peter Burman, the archivist at Hopetoun House, with other distinguished speakers and tours of the house and garden.

Timings to be advised. Meet at Hopetoun House. Lunch is included in the price. £35

Apply for tickets from Caroline McFarlane: tel. 0131 332 2715, caroline.mcfarlane@gmail.com

Saturday 7th September 2013

Between the Bridges, Villas of the Tay Estuary

Until the late 18^th century Dundee was very much contained within the area of the historic burgh, but as the town transferred into an industrial city, the wealthier merchants abandoned their town houses and moved to the suburbs, to Broughty Ferry then finally out to Angus, Perthshire and north Fife. Here we examine a series of six houses, all very different, and most are owned by AHSS members. Built on either side of the Tay, which was linked first to Dundee by ferry and then by the Tay Bridge.

The Vine sits at the foot of Roseangle, a unique Greek Revival art gallery house, built for the local MP George Duncan in 1836. Further along is a c.1840 portico fronted villa, where from the upper flat we can see up the Tay from its huge domed cupola. Further along is The Shrubbery, A David Neave villa of 1817 for a jute pioneer, but later well known as the home of the late artist, James McIntosh Patrick, and since has been lovingly repaired and a stunning garden created. Across to Newport in Fife and we will first visit Tayfield – a model estate bought by the Berry family in 1788 when a modest classical house was designed by Robert Anderson. This was extended by William Burn’s former assistant George Smith in 1829-30, likely fresh from working on the set piece house at Camperdown. The estate has policies, lodges, a model farm, all somehow sandwiched between Newport and the road bridge accesses, minutes from Dundee city centre.

Further west is The Castle, described as an early 19^th century ‘toy fort’ but a fascinating turreted villa this year celebrating its original building in 1813.  Finally to Sandford Hill, an English Arts and Crafts villa on the edge of the quarry, and one of only two M H Baillie Scott houses in Scotland. It was built for the Valentine family in 1906, originally thatched, the rebuilt and extended by Baillie Scott after a 1913 fire. It became a hotel, with a plain rear extension by Robert Hurd & Partners. It recently changed hands and is again a private house following remarkable programme of restoration and repair as highlighted by televisions “Restoration” programme.

Cost: £15. Bring a picnic lunch!

Contact: Adam Swan, DHET, 19 Dock Street, Dundee DD1 3DP      adam@dhet.org     

The morning session will concentrate on the period up to the seventeenth century and the afternoon session from the eighteenth century. The morning session will include subjects such as the Stewarts and the use of Saints, the early Abbots in Paisley, the Abbey estates and the use of their resources, and the archaeology and architecture of the Place of Paisley. The afternoon papers will concentrate on the Abbey’s place in the wider Scottish context and on its interaction with the growing town of Paisley.

Chairman:  Derek Alexander

Speakers include: 

Gilbert Márkus
Professor Charles McKean
Professor Richard Oram
David Roberts
Alan Steel
Rev. Tom Davidson Kelly
Tom Addyman

Further details as they become available at : www.paisleyabbey.org.uk or www.rlhf.info 

Visit to Drum Castle, Tower Restoration Project

Courtesy of the National Trust for Scotland, members are invited to visit the Tower at Drum Castle and listen to a detailed account of this restoration project.

£10 (to include tea)

Drummond Castle and Keep

Special private visit to the Castle and Keep and a behind-the-scenes look at renovated buildings on the Drummond Castle estate.

By kind permission of Lady Willoughby de Eresby and the Grimsthorpe and Drummond Castle Trust a private tour of the main rooms of the Castle and Keep restoration has been arranged for the AHSS.

The Castle and Keep are not normally open to the public so this tour provides a rare opportunity to appreciate the interiors.

Dependant on numbers (which may have to be limited) we may split into two groups for the Castle and Keep tour.

Following this there will be time to explore the Italianate parterre gardens, described as one of the finest formal gardens in Europe, and enjoy a picnic lunch.

The Castle comprises a tower house built in the late 15th Century, and a 17th Century mansion, both of which were rebuilt in Victorian times. The mansion was renovated in 1878, to designs by George Turnbull Ewing. The 3rd Earl of Ancaster and his wife, Nancy Astor, replanted the gardens in the 1950s.

Lunch: please bring your own picnic lunch. If the weather is fine, we will picnic in the gardens. If it is inclement we will eat in the Keep.

In the afternoon there will be a conducted visit to a number of properties which have been renovated on the Estate. A final decision as to which buyildings we will visit will be made in due course.

The cost for the day is £20 per person.

Please contact Hamish McPherson for tickets, 0141 427 4254

Saturday 26th October - Sunday 27th October 2013

A New Platform for Scottish Renaissance Studies

The Conference Centre, Perth Concert Hall, Mill Street, Perth PH1 5HZ

This conference will set a new platform for future research in the field of Scottish Renaissance Studies, with particular reference to the architecture, clients, interiors, structure and setting of the Renaissance Scottish country seat.

 It will do so by bringing together into a coherent whole the research undertaken over the last decade, which has never been presented together in this form before. This research has examined and  revalued Scotland's cultural achievements during that period within a European context, and it has provoked a favourable response within Europe.

The conference is significant in that it will not only bring together scholars from different disciplines, but will be attended by the key Renaissance architectural historians from France, Holland and England including Prof. Emeritus Jean Guillaume, former director of the Centre for the Advanced Studies in the Renaissance, University of Tours, Mme Monique Chatenet, Conservateur en chef du patrimoine, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication and  l’Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne, Prof. Konrad Ottenheym, University of Utrecht, Prof. Deborah Howard, University of Cambridge and Prof. Maurice Howard, University of Sussex. 

The two main criteria for the selection of papers was that they contained new research, and that PhD students and recent graduates were matched  with those of extensive experience.

There is a particular emphasis on the 'reading' of a building in order to understand its development. This aspect is to be supported by a visit to a recently re-interpreted site (Huntingtower) and a thought-provoking site yet to be interpreted and for which few documentary sources remain (Megginch Castle).

 The outcome of the conference is intended to be the setting of future research agendas.

The conference is also by way of a celebration of the contribution of Professor Charles McKean to the field of Scottish Renaissance Studies, with particular reference to the architecture of the Scottish country seat, on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Dundee.

For further information, a draft programme, and to book, please visit:

www.dundee.ac.uk/humanities/research/conferencesseminars/newplatform/

Christmas Lunch in the Advocate's Library, Aberdeen

Once again members are invited to come together and enjoy a talk, (on a subject yet to be decided) and a splendid lunch, in the elegant and convivial surroundings of the Advocate's Library.

£22