Moat Brae

Moat Brae is a Georgian townhouse designed by Walter Newall in Dumfries, Scotland. It was built in 1823 in the Greek revival style. J. M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, played in the house and garden as a child.

In 1961 the building was granted Category B listed building status, as a classic example of Newall's work.

Moat Brae is a medium-scale Greek revival villa, rising to two storeys with a raised basement and extending to five bays. It was one of the first houses to be built in what became George Street, Dumfries, and it occupied a large plot of ground that sloped down to the River Nith.

The house is built of polished red ashlar. The roof is slate with corniced end stacks. The front elevation features a central pedimented Doric porch, approached via flyover steps and with spearheaded cast-iron railings adjoining. The house has 12-pane sash windows trimmed in apron-style moulding throughout; those on the ground floor are topped with consoled cornices. The plasterwork features Greek revival ornament, and there is a Doric frieze in the entrance lobby. The interior features—a square central hall with a circular first floor gallery and a domed glass roof—make this one of Newall’s greatest works.

Between 1823 and 1914, the house was sold a number of times as a traditional residence. In 1914 it was purchased by The Royal Scottish Nursing Home Institution and, until 1997, remained in constant use as a nursing home (financed through various trusts), complete with private facilities for surgery and medicine.

In 2001 it was again bought privately with the plan to turn it into a hotel. However this never transpired and, in 2008, the building was purchased by Loreburn Housing Association (LHA). In 2009 there were plans to demolish the house but days before it was due to be razed it was purchased by the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust.

The Trust was established to save and restore the house and garden and to develop them as Scotland's first Centre for Children's Literature. To do this the Trust has to raise over £4m in total. Its fundraising campaign was launched in August 2011 by the Trust's patron, Joanna Lumley.

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