James Gordon (d.1790) and Alexander Gordon (d.1797) were successful Madeira wine merchants, and the younger sons of John Gordon of Letterfourie and Glicerie Dunbar. Alexander was the youngest son and a stanch Jacobite. He supported the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 at Culloden and in consequence was obliged to leave Scotland. He worked with his brother, James, in Madeira, acting as agent in Madeira after James returned to London in 1760. James remained a bachelor, whilst Alexander married the daughter of Alexander Russell, Esquire of Moncoffer, Aberdeenshire and had three sons. The pair accumulated wealth from their business and supported their nephews from the Duff family in their respective endeavours between Madeira and India. A large amount of correspondence between them survives in the Gordon of Letterfourie Papers.

The Gordons of Letterfourie descended from the Earls of Huntly who acquired the lands of Letterfourie in 1476. James had inherited the Letterfourie estate from his father and having resided in Great Britain for over a decade, decided to replace the dilapidated family seat with a new house to the designs of Robert Adam. It is not known exactly when Adam was approached, however, construction appears to have begun between 1772 and 1773. Alexander returned from Madeira in 1772 and it is not clear how much he was involved in the construction of the new house.

There are four surviving Adam office drawings that can be attributed to Letterfourie. These drawings show designs for the principal elevation of the house, and plans of the ground, principal, and bedchamber floors. The house comprised an attractive and simple, three-storey, three-bay house with a Corinthian portico, and a hipped roof, with L-shaped wings.

The house was executed to a variant design which included a half-sunk basement (that forms the ground floor on the rear elevation) with steps to the principal entrance and flanking wings. The internal stairs in the wings were also relocated from the flank ends to the links flanking the house. It is not clear if Robert Adam was involved in the interior of the house, however, there are some surviving chimneypieces and plasterwork that date from c.1773. Alexander made some alterations to the house in the 1790s, including converting the basement of the east wing into a chapel. The house has remained relatively unaltered.

It has also been suggested that Craigmin Bridge, over the Burn of Letterfourie, could be an Adam design. However, there are no known surviving Adam office drawings that relate to the bridge.

Literature:
W. Anderson, The Scottish Nation, 1863, pp. 323-4; A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, pp. 54, 72; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 1, 2001, pp. 123-6; D. Walker, Buildings of Scotland: Aberdeenshire North and Moray, 2015, pp. 686-8; A. Mutch, Tiger Duff: India, Madeira and Empire in Eighteenth-Century Scotland, 2017, pp. xiii-xiv, 12-30; UCL, Legacies of British Slavery Database, online, [accessed 5 March 2024]

Louisa Catt, 2024