St Margaret’s Hope (Admiralty House)

Description from British Listed Buildings

Description from “British Listed Buildings“

Ernest Newton, 1916. Remodelling and substantial extension in neo-Georgian style of an earlier house (circa 1829), a large section of which remains intact forming part of N end of refashioned house. 2-storey and part single storey (at original house); single storey adjoining service blocks and modern garages to S. Coursed squared sandstone rubble; droved ashlar dressings; base course at 1829 block; cill course at first floor to both blocks; original openings at rear (sea front) elevation with moulded architraves, later window surrounds with plain architraves and recessed apron panels set within architraves; carved panel, dated 1916 to central advanced bays.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 11 bays, projecting and receding irregularly. 7-bay 1916 addition to left: 2-storey, 3-bay section advanced to far left; 3 ground and 1st floor windows. Recessed section to right; ground floor window; 2 1st floor bipartite windows. Advanced 2-storey, 3-bay section to right; 3 ground floor windows; 2 1st floor windows, flanking carved central panel with Royal Naval wreath and anchor motif, dated 1916, hood-mould above. Windows to right and left return of advanced right hand section at 1st floor. Recessed 4-bay 1829 section to right: 2-storey, single bay to left; ground and 1st floor windows. 2-storey single bay section to right further recessed with projecting 3-bay ashlar pilastered entrance porch, shallow pediment and blocking course; centre bay of porch slightly advanced with 2-leaf timber panelled outer doors and half-glazed inner door; flanking windows; 1st floor window centred above porch; small square window to left. Single storey pedimented bay to penultimate right bay with window (roof lights illuminating cupola within). Wide end-bay with blind window to far right.

N ELEVATION: partially seen, 2002. Open pedimented plain gable; small blocked opening to right.

W (SHORE FRONT) ELEVATION: 2 storeys on plinth course. 1916 addition to right: 6-bays arranged 2-1-2-1, window bays projecting; right hand projecting bay pedimented with tripartite window at 1st floor; further tripartite window to 5th bay left. 1829 block to left: 2 substantial canted bay windows (2 storeys to right, single storey to left), timber balcony with roof set between canted bays at ground floor, small modern timber conservatory projecting out from centre of left canted bay; single storey block deeply recessed to far left.

S ELEVATION: adjoining double piended single storey service block; central 1st floor window; rectangular piended dormer with bipartite window centred above.

Predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case windows. Piended and pitched roofs; grey slates; wide ashlar coped skews to single storey N gable; 7 coped stop-chamfered ashlar stacks to 1916 section; 2 octagonal stacks to 1829 section; circular clay cans.

INTERIOR: retains much of late Georgian interior in original house. Hall: located in 1829 section of house. Moulded door surrounds; key-blocked arch leading to S section of house (1916 addition); timber staircase with alternate barley twisted and rectangular section balusters; circular leaded cupola to right of entrance; Adam-style chimneypiece surround to N wall. Drawing room: located in 1829 section of house to rear. Long rectangular double room fronted by canted bay windows overlooking sea, divided by large pilastered opening, now blocked by permanent wall (circa 1996). Greek key and egg and dart cornice; moulded picture rail; white marble rococo/Louis XV chimneypieces (that to S with scallop and fern carving, that to N with scrolled heraldic panel over small scallop), both with 1916 neo-Georgian grates and slips with elliptical bas-relief panels depicting allegorical scenes. Dining room: located in 1916 section of house to front (now used as drawing room). Vigorous dentilled cornice; dado panelling; panelled surround and overmantel to 18th century-style fireplace with blue-veined bolection moulded marble slip set in lugged timber chimneypiece with plain pulvinated frieze and dentilled cornice; original cast-iron grate with swags, bows and violins. Board room: located in 1829 section of house, in single storey end block. Decorative rosebud and thistle cornice; moulded picture rail; projecting corner cupboard with gothic tracery timber panelled door.

BOUNDARY WALLS TO W (SHORE FRONT): coped random rubble wall to upper level bordering house and at shore encapsulating lower garden.

WALLED GARDEN TO S: circa 1829. Enclosing rectangular garden, tapering towards S. N wall forms boundary to Main Road. Random rubble; hammer dressed quoins. Double timber boarded door to centre of N elevation, timber boarded door to right.

ARCHWAY ON DRIVE TO N: earlier 19th century. Wide segmental rubble archway, incorporating relocated 17th century fragments from the Wrychtshouse, Bruntsfield (see Notes). Semicircular pediment to S with cartouche inscribed and dated “WN IF SICVT OLIVA FRVCTIFERA 1376” [Fruitful as an olive]; triangular pediment to N with coat of arms inscribed and dated “WN EP DITAT SERVATA FIDES 1570” [Faith preserved maketh rich].

Statement of Interest

B-group with St Margaret’s Hope gatelodge.  St Margaret’s Hope is a small bay between Rosyth Castle and Long Craig. The site, on a steep hill, overlooks the Forth to the SW. This bay is known to be the place where St Margaret, future wife of King Malcolm of Canmore (1058-93) landed with her brother Edgar Atheling and her sister Catherine in 1069 on her journey to Dunfermline from Orkney. The land was acquired from the Guildry of Dunfermline in 1825 by Elias Cathcart of Auchindrane, who built the earlier house on the site in or soon after 1829, calling it St Margaret’s. This house, at the core of the present house, was presumably symmetrical, its N half largely intact, its S half absorbed by the 1916 additions.

The house passed to Captain William Elder in 1855 and subsequently to his inheritors; it was later acquired by the Admiralty for the Commander in Chief, Coast of Scotland in 1916, at which time Ernest Newton was employed. St Margaret’s Hope was known as Admiralty House during WWI. It remained the residence of the Rosyth Naval Commander until 1996, when it was handed over to the Scottish Executive and then leased out to a private company, Universal Steels.

Ernest Newton (1856-1922) was a major English Arts and Crafts architect and no other Scottish works by him are known to date. The rococo style fireplaces for the drawing room were acquired in 1917 after the house was taken over by the Admiralty. The Renaissance pediments at the archway were originally from the Wrychtshouse (wrights houses) built for William Napier (WN) and his wife, Eliza Park (EP) at Bruntsfield, which were demolished in 1800. Five cottages (known as Welldean Cottages) built on the estate on land below the existing driveway in the later 1800s, were demolished in the 1960s to make way for garages.