Located above the harbour, to the south of the centre of Dysart, is Dysart House. Built in 1755-6 for General James St. Clair, a prominent soldier and Member of Parliament, probably to a design by the Adam brothers. The house took the form of a simple box, with a bowed projection in the centre. It was extended to the rear and west by Alexander Laing between 1808 and 1814. The house passed through the family to the Earls of Rosslyn, but the 5th Earl was forced to sell the house and estate to repay gambling debts. Bought by the linoleum manufacturer Sir Michael Nairn in 1896, who gave much of the estate to the town by 1930 and his son sold the house and gardens. It was given to the Carmelite community as a nunnery, which opened in 1931.
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