The House

Crimonmogate was designed by the celebrated neo-Classical Architect Archibald Simpson, who was also the architect of many of the finest public buildings and country houses in Scotland during the Regency period. Completed in 1825, it is generally regarded as Simpson's finest country house and is now Grade A listed, which indicates its unique historical and architectural importance. The architecture is described as being a ‘uniquely successful blend of the unostentatious masculinity of the Scottish vernacular style, with harmonious proportions and civilised, ordered grandeur of the neo-Greek’.

A key feature of the house is The Great Hall, which is widely regarded as being one of the most magnificent interiors in Europe and is said to be a ‘refined and disciplined echo’ of Vanbrugh's Great Hall at Blenheim Palace. On sunny days, the light strikes through the yellow-tinted glass of the lantern cupola in the centre of the ceiling and, coupled with the warm colours in which the hall is decorated, is designed to create the effect of an ‘inside out’ chamber bathed in the sun of classical Greece.

The Great Hall is licensed for Civil Ceremonies and has dramatic, diagonally-set flagstones painted in the original chequered black and white. The acoustics are also outstanding, making it an ideal location for broadcasts, concerts, plays or other performances. Pairs of double doors lead from the hall to the octagonal smoking room, the private apartments, the great stair, the billiard room, the music room and the state drawing room.