Dunira

Perthshire: About 2.5 miles west and north of Comrie, 3 miles east and south of St Fillans, on minor road north of A85, north of River Earn, at or near Dunira.

Private   NN 738238 [?]   OS: 51   PH6 2LA

OPEN: Accommodation. Sporting estate.
Tel: 01764 670456   Web: duniraestate.com

Site of tower or old house. The property was called Comrie, and is marked as ‘Combre’ on Pont’s map of Strathearn,where a small tower appears to be depicted. In the middle of the 19th century. a baronial house, designed by William Burn, replaced an 18th century house, but this was mostly demolished in 1963. except for one wing, after a fire in 1947. The last remains were cleared away in 2006.
  The lands were held by the Comrie family from 1297 until 1653, when they passed, probably by marriage, to the Drummonds. David Drummond of Comrie is on record in 1690, then James Drummond of Comrie mentioned in 1696.
  The property was sold to Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, a very powerful character in Scotland, who also owned Melville Castle, near Edinburgh, and he was also Baron Dunira. He died here in 1811 and there is a tall obelisk to commemorate him on Monument Hill, to the north of Comrie.

  The estate was sold in 1824 to another branch of the Dundas family, and they had the house built, holding the property until sold to a Glasgow ship magnate, Alexander Macbeth, in 1919. William Mawson, the famous garden designer, laid out the grounds, and the gardens were considered to be one of the most beautiful in Britain. Sadly the estate was not maintained and, after being used as a convalescent home during World War II, the house was burnt out in 1947 in a disastrous fire.
  The gardens recently featured in the Channel 4 television series Lost Gardens, but the partial restoration was again not maintained. The site of the old house and 17 acres of the former gardens were on the market in 2016 for offers of more than £750,000.
  The Forbeses of Rothiemay lived here, but the estate was sold.
  Comrie House [773224], a two-storey mansion, dates from 1803 with later additions. There is an armorial panel with the arms of Dundas, reset from Dunira.