Donibristle House
We’ve recently been appointed to develop proposals for the alteration and extension of a substantial house in Dalgety Bay, with long views south across the Firth of Forth.
The project led us to look more closely at Donibristle, the historic estate that once covered much of what is now Dalgety Bay.
Donibristle was once an estate of Inchcolm Abbey, later passing to the Stewarts of Doune and the Earls of Moray. In 1592, James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray, was killed at Donibristle during an attack in which the house was set alight. His death was later remembered in the traditional Scottish ballad The Bonnie Earl o’ Moray.
A new mansion was built around 1700, with two substantial service wings added around 1720 to designs by Alexander McGill. By the late eighteenth century, the house sat within parkland, woodland and drives overlooking the Forth. Historic maps also show the stables, ice house, chapel and family vaults, together with the old and new harbours along the shore.
Fire destroyed the main house in 1858. Later nineteenth-century photographs show its roofless shell still standing above the Forth. The two eighteenth-century wings survived and are now Category A listed.
Donibristle changed again in the twentieth century. Part of the former estate became an airfield around 1917, later the naval air station HMS Merlin. The airfield closed in 1959, and from the 1960s much of the surrounding land was developed as Dalgety Bay.
The house we are working on was built as part of this later development. Our proposals will extend and rework it to create more generous kitchen, dining and living spaces, strengthen the connection with the garden and make more of the long views across the Forth.
More as the project develops.
Historic photographs: Dalgety Heritage Trail Digital Library, from the Meiklejohn Family, Brian Johnston and George Hastie collections. Historic mapping: National Library of Scotland.
