Pitcairn House is a ruined 17th century laird's house, located in the modern Collydean

Collydean

Collydean is a precinct or neighbourhood in Glenrothes, Fife.Collydean has been built up in a number of phases. Early housing has been built into staggered terraces with distinct mono pitched roofs. Collydean has been built with Radburn principles with its public footpaths separated from roads....

 residential area of Glenrothes

Glenrothes

Glenrothes is a large town situated in the heart of Fife, in east-central Scotland. It is located approximately from both Edinburgh, which lies to the south and Dundee to the north. The town had an estimated population of 38,750 in 2008, making Glenrothes the third largest settlement in Fife...

, in Fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The ruins are approximately 15 x 5.5m, with the east gable rising to 6m. The rest of the building has collapsed to the foundations. It is thought that the building was up to three storeys high.

The site was excavated by archaeologists in 1980. A number of finds are now in the Kirkcaldy

Kirkcaldy

Kirkcaldy is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. The town lies on a shallow bay on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth; SSE of Glenrothes, ENE of Dunfermline, WSW of Dundee and NNE of Edinburgh...

 Museum. A steading and cottages were once associated with the house, although these were demolished when the housing estate was built.

Pitcairn House was not, as is sometimes reported, built by the Picts

Picts

The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...

, a people whose culture disappeared from Scotland around the 10th century. The name Pitcairn does, however, have roots in the Pictish language

Pictish language

Pictish is a term used for the extinct language or languages thought to have been spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland in the Early Middle Ages...

, combining the common prefix pit, meaning a portion of land or farm, with the Gaelic

Scottish Gaelic language

Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....

 cairn.

Some people argue that the ruins are very dangerous, but their historical significance has led to the designation of the ruin as a Scheduled Ancient Monument

Scheduled Ancient Monument

In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...

.

External links

• Pitcairn 2000 History Tour
• National Monuments Record of Scotland
  National Monuments Record of Scotland
  The National Monuments Record of Scotland was the term used for the archive of the sites, monuments and buildings of Scotland's past maintained by Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The separate name for the archive is no longer given prominence in RCAHMS...
  
  Site Reference NO20SE 1.00 http://lmid1.rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.details_gis?inumlink=29947