Old Photograph of Crawford Priory Scotland

Old photograph of Crawford Priory, near Cupar, Fife, Scotland. This now ruined mansion house, which is not open to the public, is located two miles south west of Cupar, Fife, Scotland. It is a former residence of the Earls of Crawford, Earls of Glasgow and Barons Cochrane of Cults. It lies just outside the village of Springfield.



Originally built as Crawford Lodge by the 21st Earl of Crawford in 1758, it was substantially enlarged and extended in the early nineteenth century by a sister of the 22nd Earl, Lady Mary Lindsay Crawford. She engaged architects David Hamilton, and then James Gillespie Graham, to redesign the building in the gothic style, adding buttresses, turrets and pinnacles effecting the look of a priory, although it had had no religious history. Lady Mary's heirs, the Earls of Glasgow, further developed the house. In 1871 the 6th Earl built a chapel in the east front. However huge debts forced the 7th Earl to sell off all his estates in order to retain the family seat at Kelburn, near Largs. The house then passed to the politician Thomas Cochrane, son-in-law of the 6th Earl of Glasgow.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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