Douglases of Grangemuir

Grangemuir was the last seat of the Douglas family in Scotland. It is located just north of Pittenweem in Fife, Scotland and is now a ruin in the Grangemuir Caravan Park.

The house was of French design and was constructed as a hunting lodge for the family in the 18th century. A notable feature was its exterior of marble which made the entire house glitter in sunlight. This marble fascade is still visible today on the ruin around the windows - the rest of the building has been clad with pebbledashed concrete as a cheap way of keeping the marble veneer attached, and to exclude damp.

History

Grangemuir House was given to Lord William Robert Keith Douglas (b: 1783, d: 1859) along with 2,700 acres of land surrounding it as his home and means of income. On the 24th November 1824 he married Elizabeth Irvine (d: 1864), who became Lady Douglas of Grangemuir and Dunino. This began the sub-branch off the main Douglas line.

They had three children, William (b: 1824 d: 1868), Walter (b: 1825 d: 1901) and Charles (b: 1837 d: 1918). The children founded the Douglas Cottage Hospital in St. Andrews in 1866 as a memorial to their mother the Lady Douglas of Grangemuir and Dunino - this memorial is still reflected in the contemporary St. Andrews Memorial Hospital, one of whose wards is still called the Douglas Ward.

The heir, Walter Douglas Irvine married Anne Frances Lloyd (d: 1917), the daughter of an Anglo-Irish doctor from Roscommon in 1870. They had seven children:

1. William Keith
2. Walter Francis
3. Henry Archibald
4. Charles Gordon
5. Edward Percy
6. Lucy Florence
7. Elizabeth

, producing Henry Archibald Douglas-Irvine BA MA (b: 1883 d: 1962) who took holy orders to become a parson. His sister, Helen Douglas Irvine, was a noted novelist, historian and translator and one of the first female graduates of St. Andrews University.

Grangemuir reported earnings to the Treasury of £5298 in 1880

The Rev. Henry Archibald Douglas-Irvine was the last occupant of Grangemuir. The house and its lands were sold in 1931 due to the calamitous effects of the Great Depression of 1929. The house continued in use until the 1970's whereupon it fell into ruin and subsequent conversion into a caravan park.

His son, Walter Francis Edward Douglas BA MA (b: 1917), who had grown up playing in the gardens of Grangemuir, moved to Lincolnshire where he became an art teacher in Stamford School.

The family who built Dunino church and primary school still have exclusive right of burial in one half of the Dunino church graveyard which is just south of St. Andrews and just north of Grangemuir. The family continue their connection with the region by sending their children to university at St. Andrews.

The family papers can be found in the Special Collections Archive of St. Andrews University Library.

External Links

• Douglas of Grangemuir Papers, 16th - 20th Century (ms38603) [1] with the library record at [2]
• The Pitkin Family in Australia. Their ancestors were Thomas and Sarah Pitkin, butler and main to Lord William Robert Keith Douglas in the 19th century.
• [3]