Forglen

http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/hes/web/f?p=PORTAL:DESIGNATIONS:0

Type of Site

A large and intact Victorian country seat with several champion trees and many notable garden and architectural features, developed from an 18th-century improvement period landscape.

Location and Setting

Forglen is an extensive designed landscape set along the Deveron valley immediately to the north-west of Turriff in Banff and Buchan, Aberdeenshire. The river here meanders northwards in a broad and shallow valley, with the core woodlands, parks and fields of Forglen occupying the gently rolling valley sides to the west. The designed landscape makes a major contribution to the quality of the surrounding landscape due to the visual prominence of several architectural features, including Forglen House itself, and the sheer extent of woodlands and well-structured forestry plantations. These stretch along the higher ground above the river and contrast with the intensively farmed plains beyond. Within the designed landscape, views from the house extend upstream along the valley floor, while the higher parts of the policies such as around Forglen Home Farm and the Mausoleum, afford wider panoramic views northwards down the Deveron valley, and eastwards across the agricultural lands north of Turriff. The designed landscape boundary encompasses some 961ha (2375ac.). To the east, the boundary includes the open meadows of the valley floor, bounded by perimeter woodlands north of Knockiemill, while to the north, a stone-dyke divides the Forglen and Mountblairy estates and forms the parish boundary. To the south-west, the designed landscape includes the rolling farmland either side of the B9025, which leads from Turriff to Aberchirder. Once part of the Forglen estate, these former outer policies retain designed features, including strips of perimeter woodlands, and the striking mature beech trees which line the road.

Landscape Components

Architectural Features

Forglen House was built in 1839-40 to designs by John Smith of Aberdeen. It is a large, 3-storey Tudor mansion of harled rubble whinstone with dressings, and was built to replace an older residence on or near the same site. Arranged around a central courtyard, it features an off-centre, square tower rising behind the principal, south-east elevation, a 4-storey octagonal corner tower, which incorporates older armorial panels, and a projecting Tudor porch. The harled coachhouse and stables stand in woodland to the south, and were developed c.1840s from an existing structure (estate plan 1835). Built to a quadrangular plan, they feature an entrance pend with central tower. Forglen Home Farm is more prominent within the designed landscape. Located uphill and to the west of the house, this early 19th-century, quadrangular farm steading with 2-stage pedimented tower is also harled with Turriff sandstone margins. It stands among other mid 19th-century farm cottages and out-buildings. In a field to the south-east is an early 19th-century dovecot of square plan with pyramidal roof. Lord Banff's Well on the river bank near the house comprises an upright, semi circular-topped stone, inscribed around the upper stone band, and with a metal sun motif spout on the lower third of the stone.

The Gothic-style Forglen Mausoleum was designed by the Elgin practice of A and W Reid. Built in 1865 on higher ground to the south of Forglen Home Farm, it is of cruciform plan and features pinnacles, buttresses, stone gargoyles and a large rose window. Other buildings attributed to the same practice include the distinctive, French-style Eastside Lodge c.1865, at the main entrance to Forglen, with gates and gatepiers, and the contemporaneous Forglen North Lodge, with linked ashlar quadrant walls and gatepiers. The mid 19th-century kennels, may also be an A and W Reid design, and comprise a 2-storey cottage and piend-roofed kennel range.

Notable structures in and around Glen Wood include an early 19th-century, rubble ice-house built into steep banks above the Glen Burn, and the mid 19th-century walled garden featuring an approximately three metre high, ashlar coped rubble whinstone wall, with dressed sandstone around the doors, lean-to potting sheds and lean-to glasshouse range. Mid 19th-century, single-storey estate cottages in this area include Garden Cottage and Walled Garden Cottage. Similar cottages elsewhere include Crossbrae, Westwood and Ivy Cottage. Intertwined, hooped cast-iron railings and gates adorn both cottage garden paths, and other paths and walks around the pleasure grounds. The 2-storey, former laundry stands in woods to the N of Forglen House. Immediately east of the walled garden is a white marble monument in the form of an octagonal tower with tracery and finial, erected on a grassy mound in 1858 to commemorate Sir Robert Abercromby (1784-1855) and his two sons. Near Bogton at the western edge of the designed landscape is the Forglen Memorial Hall, built 1921, and war memorial.

Significant architectural features in the south west part of the designed landscape include the remains of the Old Church of Forglen, rebuilt on the site of an earlier structure in 1692, and the Manse of Forglen Kirklands, dating mainly from the mid to later 18th-century building and thought to have been developed from a late 17th century structure. At the south west of the designed landscape, the 3-arched sandstone and granite Deveron Bridge and single-storey and basement, octagonal Old Tollhouse were both built in 1826. On the east side of the Deveron, the Mill of Ashogle, c.1800 stands by an old fording point across the river. Among trees to the south, Knockiemill is an early 19th-century, 2-storey farmhouse.

Drives and Approaches

Many routes lead through the designed landscape. Some originate from old fording or ferry points on the river, thus preserving the memory of a landscape prior to the construction of the Deveron Bridge in 1826. The present principal drive to Forglen House is that which enters just west of the bridge at Eastside Lodge, built c.1865. Curving northwards above the river through mixed woodland, this is a long entrance drive that affords glimpses of adjacent parks before arriving at the garden grounds of the house. Close to the drive, a Grand fir (Abies grandis) is the county champion for Aberdeenshire (www.treeregister.org ). Another, shorter drive enters the core policies at North Lodge. From here, this straighter, oak-lined drive crosses Glen Burn, and then leads past the conifer specimens and rhododendrons of the woodland garden before terminating at the gravel sweep of Forglen House. Elsewhere, numerous service roads, tracks and paths afford access to estate buildings, cottages and other areas of the policies.

Paths and Walks

Ornamented walks through the pleasure grounds of Forglen include a secluded woodland path along the Glen Burn valley through the water garden (see under 'Water Features'), and a curving, tree-lined path that connects the grounds around the house to the south entrance of the walled garden. Both are clearly marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey maps, and can probably be attributed to the main phase of landscape and building development of the 1830s and 40s. Another long-established walk follows the wooded west bank of the Deveron, affording fine views of the house and park. An improved drainage system and newly planted limes were established c.2008-9.

Parkland

The inner park is adorned with mature individual specimen trees on the sloping ground above Forglen House and on the opposite bank of the Deveron. Although Dutch elm disease has now killed the elms, the surviving trees remain important in landscape views both to and from the house. They include limes, larch, sycamore and Douglas fir. The open meadows east of the Deveron also contribute to the setting of the house. A mid-late prehistoric circular enclosure located in these grounds is one of two such monuments within the designed landscape, both scheduled on account of their national archaeological importance (www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/index/heritage/searchmonuments ).

An estate plan of 1835 suggests that formerly, parkland extended over a greater area around Forglen House, the coachhouse and stables, and east of the north drive. The development of parks and the construction of ha has (which survive along the north drive and around some outer fields) were probably part of the later 18th-century improvements of the Lords Banffs ' a landscape fashion partially eclipsed by the 19th-century planting and garden schemes of the Abercrombies.

Woodland

The extensive Forglen woods and forestry are a strong scenic component of the designed landscape and make an important contribution to this part of the Deveron valley landscape. Mixed deciduous woodlands in and around the core pleasure grounds seclude the inner park and key buildings and provide the immediate setting for much of the main drive and other policy tracks and walks. Tall conifer specimens, particularly in Forlgen Wood to the west of the house, protrude above the woodland canopy and are distinctive in landscape views towards the centre of the estate. Narrow strips of perimeter woodlands help define the designed landscape boundary along the Cunning Burn to the south-west and by Knockiemill to the east, with the latter also serving to frame and seclude the park and meadow views across the river from Forglen House. The larger swathes of forestry plantations on the upper grounds, meanwhile, are sensitively managed and are distinctive in their contrast with the surrounding agricultural heartlands of Banff and Buchan.

A report of 1723 reveals that some plantations were already in place around Forglen and Todlaw at this time (Anderson 1967: 559). Cartographic evidence also indicates significant tree-cover in the estate from the mid-18th century, with Roy's Military Survey depicting large, enclosed plantations to the north, south and south-west of the house (Roy 1747-55). The Statistical Account refers to a 'variety of fine old wood' covering the river banks and planted hill-top, 'which shuts the fields and houses below finely in, and screens them from the winds and storms' (1795: 534). According to this account, much of the plantation work was initiated by Alexander Ogilvy, 7th Lord Banff, with further additions by William, 8th Lord Banff (1795: 534).

Woodland Garden

North of Forglen House, the inner park gives way to a shady woodland garden, characterised by mature specimen trees, flowering shrubs, and a curving conifer-lined path to the walled garden. Notable specimens include Giant sequoia and an enormous sitka spruce, recorded as the county champion of Aberdeenshire for its girth (www.treeregister.org ). This leafy garden environment was developed as exotic trees and plants became more widely available during the mid-19th century, and the paths and mixed tree cover are clearly depicted on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map (1864-71 OS 25'). Today, the garden also forms the setting for the monument to Sir Robert Abercromby and his sons, erected 1858.

Water Features

Paths from the woodland garden link up with the Glen water garden, a well-defined circuit of burn-side, woodland paths that lead up and down the secluded, deeply-incised Glen Burn valley. Judging from earlier editions of the Ordnance Survey, the path and some planting were already in place by c.1870, with further trees and a footbridge established by c.1900 (1864-71 OS 25'; 1899-1901 OS 25'), and the burn manipulated to form several pools by the 1920s (1923-25 OS 25'). The still water of the pools and the rushing sound of the burn and waterfalls are key components of the garden experience. Rhododendrons and azalea ornament the paths, while tree specimens on the steep banks include Dawn Redwood, deodars, Grand fir, spruce, beech, copper beech, and Western Red Cedar. Over recent years, the owners of Forglen have initiated a project to clear burgeoning vegetation and to plant new, young shrubs along the path. Further newly planted trees just north of the walled garden include Monkey Puzzle and Dawn Redwood.

Walled Garden

The large walled garden of Forglen is situated among trees between Forglen House and Glen Wood. It was built sometime during the mid-19th century, replacing an earlier kitchen garden that appears to have once stood further to the east (estate map 1835). The main part of the garden is a rectangular walled enclosure that retains much of its original internal organisation, with central and perimeter paths, and a fine lean-to glasshouse range on the north wall. To the south, there is an enclosed area of a similar size that once contained a more informal, shrubbery'style garden, also with perimeter walks, and a free-standing glasshouse or conservatory on a raised terrace to the west (1864-71 OS). A stand of larches now occupy this western part of this garden, while the eastern half is grassed. The surviving central shrubbery walk, however, remains an impressive feature and a fine approach to the main walled garden. Lined with shrubs, trees, and vivid red Japanese maple, it leads up to and through the high garden wall via an arched entrance-way of dressed sandstone. Inside, working with the historic structure of the garden, the present owners and estate staff have created striking planting schemes. Path-side box hedging, symmetrical beds and trees bestow unity to the whole, while the garden is also large enough to accommodate some distinct areas, including a group of ornamental trees in the south east corner, a central avenue of pleached limes leading towards the east door, cottage-style borders in front of the glasshouses, and a lawn with colourful island beds in the west compartment. Older fruit trees still adorn several areas of the garden walls.