Crawford Priory is a mansion

Mansion

A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...

 about 2 miles south west of Cupar

Cupar

Cupar is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland. The town is situated between Dundee and the New Town of Glenrothes.According to a recent population estimate , Cupar had a population around 8,980 making the town the ninth largest settlement in Fife.-History:The town is believed to have...

, 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...

. It is a former residence of the Earls of Crawford

Earl of Crawford

The title Earl of Crawford is one of the most ancient extant titles in Great Britain, having been created in the Peerage of Scotland for Sir David Lindsay in 1398. It is the premier earldom recorded on the Union Roll.The title has a very complex history...

, Earls of Glasgow

Earl of Glasgow

Earl of Glasgow is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1703 for David Boyle, Lord Boyle, one of the commissioners who negotiated the Treaty of Union uniting the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain...

 and Barons Cochrane of Cults

Baron Cochrane of Cults

Baron Cochrane of Cults, of Crawford Priory in the County of Fife, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1919 for the Liberal Unionist politician and former Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Hon. Thomas Cochrane. He was the second and youngest son of...

. It lies just outside the village of Springfield

Springfield, Fife

The small village of Springfield lies at the edge of the Howe of Fife, to the south of the town of Cupar, Fife, Scotland. The origin of the community is thought to be from the linen industry in the 19th century. The Church of Scotland parish church was built in 1861...

.

Originally built as Crawford Lodge by the 21st Earl of Crawford in 1758, it was substantially enlarged and extended in the early nineteenth century by a sister of the 22nd Earl

George Lindsay-Crawford, 22nd Earl of Crawford

Major General George Lindsay-Crawford, 22nd Earl of Crawford , was a Scottish peer and soldier. He served in the British Army and was Lord Lieutenant of Fife....

, Lady Mary Lindsay Crawford.

Lady Mary engaged architects David Hamilton

David Hamilton (architect)

David Hamilton was a Scottish architect based in Glasgow. He has been called the "father of the profession" in Glasgow. Notable works include Hutchesons' Hall, Nelson Monument in Glasgow Green and Lennox Castle. The Royal Exchange in Queen Street is David Hamilton's best known building in Glasgow...

, and then James Gillespie Graham

James Gillespie Graham

James Gillespie Graham was a Scottish architect, born in Dunblane. He is most notable for his work in the Scottish baronial style, as at Ayton Castle, and he worked in the Gothic Revival style, in which he was heavily influenced by the work of Augustus Pugin...

, to redesign the building in the gothic

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 style, adding buttress

Buttress

A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...

es, turrets and pinnacle

Pinnacle

A pinnacle is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire...

s effecting the look of a priory

Priory

A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...

, although it had had no religious history.

Lady Mary's heirs, the Earls of Glasgow, further developed the house. In 1871 the 6th Earl of Glasgow

George Boyle, 6th Earl of Glasgow

George Frederick Boyle, 6th Earl of Glasgow was a Scottish nobleman.He was the son of George Boyle, 4th Earl of Glasgow and Julia Sinclair, daughter of Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet....

 built a chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

 in the east front. However huge debts forced the 7th Earl

David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow

David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow, GCMG was a Governor of New Zealand.-Royal Navy:Boyle served with the Royal Navy during the Crimean and Second Opium Wars...

 to sell off all his estates in order to retain the family seat at Kelburn

Kelburn Castle

Kelburn Castle is a large house near Fairlie, North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is the seat of the Earl of Glasgow. Originally built in the thirteenth century it was remodelled in the sixteenth century. In 1700 the first Earl made further extensions to the house in a manner not unlike a French château...

, near Largs

Largs

Largs is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" in Scottish Gaelic....

.

The house then passed to the politician Thomas Cochrane, son-in-law of the 6th Earl of Glasgow

George Boyle, 6th Earl of Glasgow

George Frederick Boyle, 6th Earl of Glasgow was a Scottish nobleman.He was the son of George Boyle, 4th Earl of Glasgow and Julia Sinclair, daughter of Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet....

. Cochrane was created Baron Cochrane of Cults in 1919. Further remodelling was undertaken in the 1920s, including the removal of the porte cochere to the west front. After the death of the 2nd Baron in 1968 the house was closed, and gradually fell into disrepair and ruin. There are no significant remains of the internal gothic design save a cast iron balustrade in the D-shaped main stairhall in the east side of the building.