Old Photograph Dura House Scotland

Old photograph of Dura House in Dura Den a village near Cupar, Fife, Scotland. A branch of the family of Airth of Airth Castle lived here in the 16th. and early 17th. centuries. David was Sheriff or Sheriff-Depute of Fife in 1553 and George held the same office in 1592. He also represented Cupar in the Scottish Parliament of 1617. In 1624 Dura belonged to Magister David Wemys, minister of Leven. In 1750 it came to the Baynes through marriage. Alexander Bayne, Professor of Municipal Law at Edinburgh, acquired Rires in 1722. His father had been Sheriff Clerk of Fife in 1672. From the Baynes it passed to the Meldrums of Kincaple and Craigfoodie who were advocates. They took the name Bayne Meldrum and held the estate until 1951 when the house was purchased by David Anderson - later to be knighted - the bridge and tunnel expert. The plans for the Forth Road Bridge were drawn there, but he died before the bridge was built. He made a name for himself in the construction of the Moscow and London underground railway systems. He left his considerable fortune to a Chinese mission. In 1958 Dura was bought by the Howat family who later sold it to the Milnes.



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