Airdrie House

Airdrie House in Fife is a privately occupied mansion which has at its core a 16th century tower house built for the Lumsden family. It cannot be seen from any public roads as it is hidden behind trees.

The house is a long rectangular mansion with a square tower in the middle on the front of the building.  On one side of this tower a round turret projects which presumably contains stairs, on the top of which is a square viewing platform. On the other is a smaller turret with an ornate decorative window. To the rear is a single storey extension which may represent the location of a prior courtyard. The house has been much altered and bears little evidence of its history from the outside other than the ornate window and its setting. This  has finials dated 1588 terminating in human heads. The lintel of this window bears a monogram MCLOA flanked by a lion and either a boar or an otter.

The lands of Airdrie remained in the hands of various branches of the Lumsden family until the end of the 16th century, and in 1605 was sold to William Turnbull. His daughter Elizabeth brought the property into the hands of the Preston family with her marriage, but it is interesting to note that Lumsdens continued to call themselves of Airdrie into the 17th century. Although there was intermarriage between the Lumsdens and Prestons, Airdrie does not appear to have returned into the hands of the Lumsden family for long if at all, and by the end of the century were held by Sir James Anstruther. Whilst the monogram contains both the L of Lumsden and the A of Anstruther, it does not correspond with known marriages of the family.

The house has been extended and modernised, and is not open to the public.