Hill of Tarvit
The Hill of Tarvit is a 20th-century mansion house and gardens in Fife, Scotland. They were designed by Sir Robert Lorimer and are today owned by the National Trust for Scotland.
The house is situated on a hillside a mile and a half south of Cupar, Fife. It is set in 40 acres (160,000 m2) of garden and 279 acres (1.13 km2) of open estate. This includes woodland, parkland, farmland and open heath, with extensive views.
Between 1905 and 1906, the house and gardens were remodelled, for the Sharp family, by the renowned Scottish architect Sir Robert Lorimer incorporating French and Chippendale-style furniture, porcelain and paintings collected by F B Sharp.
The house today and wider estates are owned and operated by the National Trust for Scotland. They display Lorimer's original design and furnishings, and they are open to the public incorporating a tearoom and shop. Visitors are able to see both the Sharp family's state of the art accommodation, as well as glimpse life "below-stairs" for the servants. The 9-hole golf course has also been restored and players can compete in Edwardian style with original hickory clubs and softer rubber-wound balls.
The site dates back to at least the Iron Age. The remains of a homestead were excavated in 1946-7 at the top of Tarvit Hill. During the excavation, an elaborate circular wooden house of about 17 m in diameter was found, it was within an oval bank which enclosed an area of 33x27m. The house is thought to have been occupied between 200 BC and AD 200, and rebuilt at least twice in that period.
In 1500, Scotstarvit Tower was built a mile southwest from Hill of Tarvit. This was constructed by the Inglis family of Tarvit as the centre of their estate. The tower was then sold in 1611 to Sir John Scott of Scotstarvit. Sir John rebuilt much of the tower in the 1620s – seen by the date 1627 on a piece of the Tower's chimneypiece that now forms part of the fireplace in the Hill of Tarvit's smoking room.
The estate, then known as Unthank was remodelled by John Wemyss of Unthank after 1696. Wemyss neglected the defensive tower as redundant and built a new mansion house on the site of the current Hill of Tarvit house, naming it "Wemyss House". The architect used here was possibly Sir William Bruce. This house was expanded in the following centuries, with a service wings added to the rear or north side, one during the 1840s.
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