North facade, detail of coat of arms on clock tower. (no.14 on annotated print)

Description North facade, detail of coat of arms on clock tower. (no.14 on annotated print)

Date 13/6/2000

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number D 68449 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 764732

Scope and Content Detail of Clock-Tower, North Front, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries & Galloway This magnificent pink sandstone clock-tower, which rises above the entrance porch on the north front, was elaborately carved by the Dutch masons, Peter Paul Boyse and Cornelius Van Nerven. The lower storeys are set between tall, fluted Corinthian pilasters, and the upper window is framed by a blind arch with a grotesque head at the centre. Above, rising up from the frieze, is a semicircular pediment filled a huge coat-of-arms of the Queensberry family. The tower is surmounted by an octagonal clock-turret with fluted angle pilasters, and bears a square wooden clock dial with the date '1686'. William Douglas, 1st Duke of Queensberry, described as a man of artistic tastes, spared no expense on the construction of his house. He died in 1695 ruined, it is said, by the expense it had incurred. He hired the best stone masons of the day, and created an entrance front, approached at the end of a great avenue, that is almost of theatrical glamour. The centrepiece was the clock-tower, emblazoned with the family crest, a huge version that was clearly visible to guests alighting from their carriages three storeys below. Drumlanrig Castle, one of the great Renaissance courtyard houses of Scottish domestic architecture, stands within extensive parkland amongst the hills of Nithsdale. The mansion was built between 1679 and 1690 for William Douglas, 1st Duke of Queensberry, incorporating part of a mid-16th-century house and the remains of a late 14th-century Douglas stronghold which originally stood on the site. The architect was almost certainly James Smith who had worked on the construction of Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, and the builder was William Lukup who is buried in Durisdeer churchyard nearby. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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