2,435 Stags Antlers and Mounted heads adorn the ballroom of Mar Lodge Cairngorms National Park Braemar Aberdeenshire SCO 2214
Approximately 5 miles west of Braemar village in the heart of Royal Deeside and crossing the River Dee is the white all metal Victoria Bridge which was built in 1905. Crossing this will lead to Mar Lodge House This impressive German style hunting Lodge was built by the Duke of Fife in 1895 . The original Mar Lodge was built in the late 18th Century on part of the lands forfeited by John Erskine, the 11th Earl of Mar (1675 - 1732), following his support for the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. The Earls of Fife fell heir to the estate and needed a base for their hunting. This first lodge was badly damaged by flooding, the 'Muckle Spate' of 1829 and later demolished. Further damage was suffered in 1895 after a major fire. Aberdeen architect A. Marshall Mackenzie was asked to produce a more impressive version of what stood before. Being in the heart of the Caledonian Native Scots Pine forest extensive use was made of timber for wood panelling, and being a hunting lodge is replete with dead and mounted animals heads. On either side of the building stand an Episcopalian chapel and, perhaps its most striking feature, a ballroom decorated with several thousand sets of deer antlers adorning the roof ceilings and walls. In the 20th Century the Fifes disposed of the lodge. In 1991, during a restoration a fire badly damaged the core of the house, although the contents were in storage and thus undamaged. The lodge and Mar estate now have a new future focussed on conservation thanks to the Lottery Commission-funded purchase by the National Trust for Scotland. SCO 2214
Size: 3732px × 5619px
Location: Mar Lodge House Braemar Aberdeenshire Grampian Region Scotland
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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