Cardy House

Cardy House at the east end of Lower Largo's Main Street, was built in 1871 for David Gillies.  It overlooked the Cardy Net Works which, from its 1867 origins, had quickly become a thriving business.  The impressive villa was ornately decorated inside and out and retained its Victorian décor and furnishings for over a century.  Writing in the mid-1980s, a visitor to Cardy House wrote that "this is surely one of the most evocative houses in Scotland, lived in by several generations of one remarkable family, and to visit it is to step back onto an age quite lost and gone - but not yet entirely, for at Cardy House the Victorian era is perpetuated with an unusual awareness, sense of values and loving care." Details of the visit were published in the book "Scottish Victorian Interiors" edited by Sheila Mackay.  

Outside were sculptures - both in the gardens and on the exterior of the building itself. For example, the sculptured figure of Atlas supporting a globe posed above the main entrance (see image below). A "grey stone sculpture of an Arcadian youth draped in a feline fur" flanked one side of the house.  There was a crouching lion at each gable and a Pompeian youth in the garden. A subterranean passage led from the house, under a public footpath, to the net factory grounds.

The "Scottish Victorian Interiors" book goes on to describe the indoors..."halfway up the red pine staircase which ascends from the front door of Cardy House, the visitor comes face to face with Alexander Selkirk in his goatskins - a huge sombre bust, the only one cast from the statue at the birthplace"..."The landing is a fantastic study in sepia: dark wooden bannisters, dark panelling, an immense wooden chest, Victorian paintings closely hung on hand decorated walls.  A paraffin lamp with the white globe lit to show the family to bed still stands in the bracket fixed to the bannister rail. On the chest stands a musical box, and Victorian plants sprout from Victorian china pots in Victorian plant holders."

The hand-decorated walls were part of a redecoration done around 1890 to designs by James Darling of Edinburgh. The ornamental plasterwork on the ceilings was designed and painted by two travelling Italian artists, according to the 1982 book "Seatoun of Largo" by Ivy Jardine.  The Victorian fittings, furniture and all-manner of possessions are well-documented elsewhere and are too numerous to mention here, however, I'll finish with a final quote from "Scottish Victorian Interiors"...

"The doors have kept their porcelain handles and finger-plates.  The house bells, pulled by hand, still ring in the kitchen below, and although no one is there to answer, their leisurely jangle is like an echo from a bygone age."

Although Cardy House has now moved onto a new chapter in its history, the fact that it was preserved as a 'time capsule' for so long and was so well-documented and photographed during that time, means that future generations will always have a fascinating insight into Largo history that they may never otherwise have had. If you have memories of Cardy House or visited there during one of the many occasions when its doors were generously opened to the local folks, please comment.