 Local historian John Guthrie Smith (1834–1894), a relative of the Smith family of nearby Craigend Castle, leased the house from 1874.He had the 17th-century mansion demolished, and commissioned a Scottish baronial style house to be built in the ruins of the old castle.It was designed by architects Cambell Douglas & Sellars, and was extended to designs by James Sellars in the 1880s.