Dumfries House (Scottish Gaelic: Taigh Dhùn Phris) is a Palladian country house located in the town of Cumnock in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It is within a large estate, around west of Cumnock. Noted for being one of the few such houses with much of its original 18th-century furniture still present, including specially commissioned Thomas Chippendale pieces, the house and estate is now owned by The Prince's Foundation, a charity which maintains it as a visitor attraction and hospitality and wedding venue. Both the house and the gardens are listed as significant aspects of Scottish heritage.
The estate and an earlier house were originally called Lefnoreis or Lochnorris, owned by a branch of the Craufurds of Loudoun. The present house was built in the 1750s for William Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries, by John Adam and Robert Adam. Having been inherited by the 2nd Marquess of Bute in 1814, it remained in his family until 2007 when the 7th Marquess sold it, after three years of uncertainty, due to the cost of upkeep.
Due to its significance and the risk of the furniture collection being distributed and auctioned in 2007 the estate and its entire contents was purchased for £45m for the country by a consortium headed by the Prince of Wales (later King Charles III) including a £20m loan from the Prince's charitable trust. The intention was to renovate the estate to become self-sufficient, both to preserve it and regenerate the local economy. As well as donors and sponsorship, funding was also intended to come from constructing the nearby housing development of Knockroon, a planned community along the lines of the Prince's similar venture, Poundbury in Dorset.
The house duly reopened in 2008, equipped for public tours. Since then various other parts of the estate have been reopened for various uses, to provide both education and employment, as well as funding the trust's running costs. The then Prince of Wales was in residence at the estate on 8 September 2022, when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, became gravely ill; he was transported by helicopter to Balmoral Castle, where she died later the same day.
Designations
The house is a category A listed building, described by Historic Environment Scotland as "an exceptionally fine and unspoilt Adam mansion". The grounds of the house are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens and parks.
History
Lochnorris estate
Originally the estate was known as Lefnoreis or Lochnorris, and belonged to a branch of Craufurds of Loudoun. The original castle stood on the elevated ground close to the coach house.
Earl of Dumfries
In 1635, the estate was purchased from the Craufords by William Crichton, 2nd Earl of Dumfries (1598–1691). The estate, and the title, passed via his daughter to his grandson William Dalrymple-Crichton, 5th Earl of Dumfries and 4th Earl of Stair (1699–1768). He commissioned the Adam brothers to design a new house for the estate.
Dumfries House was designed and built between 1754 and 1759, by Scottish architects John and Robert Adam, although the style of the house is more in keeping with John Adam's other work. Robert Adam oversaw construction until his departure on the "Grand Tour" of Europe. As such it represents an early independent work by the Adam Brothers, who had taken over the architecture business of their father William Adam on his death in 1748. The house is a Palladian design, with a three-storey central block connected to smaller pavilions by linking wings. A master mason who worked as a contractor at Dumfries House was James Armour, father-in-law of the poet Robert Burns.
Marquess of Bute
In 1814, Dumfries House was inherited, along with the earldom of Dumfries, by John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, and the property remained in the Crichton-Stuart family until 2007. In 1885, the 3rd Marquess of Bute commissioned Robert Weir Schultz to design the pavilions. The Crichton-Stuart family retained their main residence at Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute. In the later 20th century, the house was lived in by the Dowager Marchioness of Bute, Lady Eileen, until her death in 1993. The 6th Marquess died a few months later, meaning the house passed to her grandson the 7th Marquess, the racing driver known as John Bute (and formerly as Johnny Dumfries).
Intended sale
With John Bute facing a bill from the death duties of both his father and grandmother, he considered selling the house. It was first offered to the National Trust for Scotland in 1994, but they declined. He instead retained the house, later replacing the roof.