Kinnaird House

A large B-listed mansion with its situation considerably ruined having found itself lying next to the junction of the M9 motorway with the M876, Kinnaird House is located in the N of Falkirk Council Area, a mile (1.7 km) northeast of Stenhousemuir. It was constructed in the Scots-Jacobean style in 1895-97, the work of Glaswegian architect James Thomson (1835 - 1905) and features a prominent porte-cochère beneath a battlemented tower in the centre of the entrance (west) front. This is the third house of the same name on this site since the early 17th century, the second having been the birthplace of the African explorer James Bruce (1730-94), but described by Groome as "old fashioned" in the 1880s.

Kinnaird was the property of the Bruce family from 1476, when the Abbot of Holyrood sold the lands to Sir Alexander Bruce of Stenhouse and Airth. In 1895, it was purchased by a prosperous merchant, Robert Orr, who built the present house and the property remained in his family until it was once again sold in the late 1930s. During the Second World War, the house became the Headquarters of the Polish Army in Scotland and later was a store for emergency hospital supplies. Having fallen into disrepair, the house returned to private hands in 1977, with its new owner, John Findlay Russell, undertaking a programme of restoration to return both house and grounds to their former glory.

The ground floor has a drawing room, library and lounge along the south facade, with an east-facing dining room and a billiard room in the northwest corner. The rooms feature fine fireplaces, wood panelling and plasterwork ceilings.

The stables date from the 18th century and the walled garden from 1602.


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