Crawford Priory facts for kids

The west front of Crawford Priory as it is today.

Crawford Priory is a large, old country house in Scotland. It's located about 2 miles southwest of a town called Cupar in Fife. This grand house used to be home to important families. These included the Earls of Crawford, the Earls of Glasgow, and the Barons Cochrane of Cults. You can find it just outside the small village of Springfield.

The Story of Crawford Priory

How Crawford Priory Began

Crawford Priory started as a smaller house called Crawford Lodge. It was built in 1758 by the 21st Earl of Crawford. Later, in the early 1800s, it was made much bigger. This expansion was led by Lady Mary Lindsay Crawford. She was the sister of the 22nd Earl.

Lady Mary wanted the house to look like an old priory. She hired famous architects, first David Hamilton and then James Gillespie Graham. They redesigned the house in the Gothic style. This means they added features like buttresses (supports), turrets (small towers), and pinnacles (pointed decorations). Even though it looked like a priory, it never had any religious history.

Changes by the Earls of Glasgow

After Lady Mary, the Earls of Glasgow took over the house. They continued to make changes. In 1871, the 6th Earl of Glasgow added a chapel to the east side of the house.

However, the family faced financial difficulties. Because of this, the 7th Earl had to sell almost all of his family's land. He did this to keep their main family home, Kelburn Castle, near Largs.

New Owners and Later Years

The house was then bought by a politician named Thomas Cochrane. He was the son-in-law of the 6th Earl of Glasgow. In 1919, Thomas Cochrane was given the title Baron Cochrane of Cults.

More changes were made to the house in the 1920s. Architect Reginald Fairlie worked on these updates. One change was removing the porte cochere (a covered entrance for vehicles) from the west front.

After the 2nd Baron Cochrane of Cults passed away in 1968, the house was closed. Over time, it slowly fell apart and became a ruin. Today, not much is left of the original Gothic design inside. You can still see a cast iron balustrade (a fancy railing) in the main staircase area on the east side.

More Information

If you want to learn more about Crawford Priory, you can check these links:

• Crawford Priory (LB2567) at Historic Environment Scotland
• Crawford Priory (1294) at Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland
• Crawford Priory (31613) at Canmore
• Images of Crawford Priory at Canmore