Priestfield House was a Victorian Country House near

Cults In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

, Fife, Scotland.

History

The estate, originally an outlying property of

Crawford Priory Crawford Priory is an estate house about 2 miles south west of Cupar, Fife, based on private land with no single owner. It is a former residence of the Earls of Crawford, Earls of Glasgow and Barons Cochrane of Cults. It lies just outside the ...

, was purchased from the

Earl of Glasgow Earl of Glasgow is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1703 for David Boyle, Lord Boyle. The first earl was subsequently one of the commissioners who negotiated the Treaty of Union uniting the Kingdom of England and the Kingd ...

by a wealthy merchant, James Martin Esq. in 1889. In 1892, he aggrandized the existing house by the addition of a substantial East Wing, comprising a first floor Billiards Room, a conical tower and a large

Dining Room A dining room is a room (architecture), room for eating, consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically ...

. In addition to this, the existing Service Wing was expanded to accommodate a larger domestic staff. The architect for the work was James Ross Gillespie of Gillespie & Scott of Queen Street,

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

. The same architect was responsible for the construction of the extensive Priestfield Maltings nearby. The House was demolished in c.1968, owing partially to the decay of the East Wing. The Wash House, a fragment of the original service wing, survives.

Family

James Martin (1841-1898), a merchant, bought the Priestfield Estate, initially comprising the farms of Priestfield, Pitlessie Mill and Brotus, as well as the superiority of the village of Pitlessie. Martin was an agriculturalist and industrialist, with extensive interests in malting, and the mining and burning of lime. At his death, his Cults lime works were said to be the largest of their kind in Scotland. He died childless, and the estate passed to his niece, Mary Martin Smith Martin (1875-1909). The House was subsequently inherited by her brother, James Martin Smith JP, Laird of Priestfield (1876-1933), who assumed the additional surname of Martin. He married Marion Martin Smith (née Ainslie), of the families of Ainslie of Dolphinton and Hunter of Polmood.

References

{{coord, 56.2700, -3.0651, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Scottish country houses destroyed in the 20th century Former country houses in Scotland Country houses in Fife