St Andrews , Fife - NO 483144 - Gatty 158, 273 - Ross 461

Lat: 56:19:09N Lon: 2:50:15W

It has an eight sided shaft with obelisk style sunken dials, followed by a 'collar with hemi-cylinder dials' (like a lectern), then a cube with hollows and a facetted block (like the boss of an obelisk).

The house was formerly called Mount Melville then became Craigtoun Maternity Hospital but now belongs to Golf Resorts International (who own the neighbouring Dukes Course) who in 1998 announced they were to spend £6 million to turn it into a luxurious golf & country club. When I visited work had just started on the old house.

The facetted block is 90 degrees out of alignment with the rest of the dial. It is (like many) generally missing gnomons.

Visited 07 September 1982 - A. R. Somerville

Visited 12 May 2006 - Author

 

I had thought that this was a multiple dial that was so disjointed in style that it hinted at being a combination of elements of a couple of dials. However, when I visited it I found that I was dramatically wrong. The dial solved the issue by having joins in what I would consider strange places - not on the divides between sundials but in some places straight through them.

I should have been calmly sat at Leuchars Railway Station awaiting a friend coming up by train who I was to be chauffer and tour guide for. However, I had not seen all the dials I had planned to so decided to push and try to see one I was most curious about. Seeing a dial should not be hurried but my driving was. I made it back to Leuchars Railway Station with a squeal of tires just as the train pulled into the station.

 

MacGibbon & Ross