Fasque

Open to the public in summer, Fasque House is a four-storey classical mansion situated near Fettercairn on the northern edge of the Howe of the Mearns. It was built in 1809 for Sir Alexander Ramsay of Balmain to an earlier design by William Adam and replaced the former house of Faskie. Surrounded by a designed landscape of trees and rhododendrons, the building was extended by Sir John Gladstone (1764 - 1851), the wealthy Liverpool grain merchant, who bought the estate in 1829. Gladstone's youngest son, William Ewart Gladstone (1809-98), grew up here and eventually became Britain's longest serving prime minister. The name Fasque is derived from a Gaelic word that means 'shelter'.

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