About this website
This website is created and run by Alastair Disley, while he was a PhD student at the University of York. For more information, visit his personal website.
I was born in 1975, several years after most of Craigends House had been demolished. We lived in the first of the new estates built on the grounds of the house, and my bedroom looked out over the river Gryfe, from the bridge downstream. As a child I used to explore the estate and imagine what had once been there. Most of it was not built on then, with sheep grazing in the fields and wildlife taking over the remains of the gardens.
The author (aged four) and family examining the remains of Craigends House on the day the last part was demolished
That child's curiosity about Craigends has stayed with me. When I first saw photographs of the house, I was amazed at how vast it was, and surprised that it was not better known. This website provides a useful focus for my research, and will hopefully allow you to enjoy the beauty of the house and its gardens once more. My initial interest has expanded to David Bryce's other works and contemporaries, and I hope to add information on these to the site when I am able.
Firstly, I would like to thank my parents, Ian and Linda Disley, who took many of the photographs on this site and who encouraged my interest. Thanks are due to people who helped provide information on the house: Bridget Butter, Jim Campbell for his own website, and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS). Thanks also to the people at the University of York who are providing support with my ongoing research: Dr. Simon Ditchfield in the History Department, and Peter Burman of the Centre for Conservation Studies. Last but not least, my girlfriend Helen Wellsted for her patience with my many "distractions"!
All content © 2002 Alastair Disley. No part of this site may be reproduced without prior permission.