Situated close to State Highway 1, Dunrobin is a two-storey Georgian-style property with nine rooms in East Taieri, on the north side of the road. Dunrobin was built in the 1850s by the McKay family. A sign bears the name Dunrobin, 1852 at the entrance to the driveway and a significant oak tree remains on the site. This place has historical and aesthetic significance.

Tradition tells us the Taiari and its various waterways was created by the taniwha Makaka who is immortalised as Pukemakamaka / Saddle Hill. Kāi Tahu ki Otago used all areas of the Taiari / Taieri Plain as evidenced by the hundreds of mahika kai sites associated with the numerous waterways, lakes and wetlands in the area which was one of the most significant food baskets of the Otago region. The lower Taiari was an important occupation site with the Maitapapa kāinga at Henley. An important route, referred to by J. H. Beattie as a ‘Maori track’, passed through the area. In July 1844, the Otago Purchase, negotiated by Frederick Tuckett, was signed at Kōpūtai / Port Chalmers. This agreement alienated a large areas of land around Dunedin in European hands and saw a native reserve established on the north bank of the Taiari awa. Alexander McKay (1802-1879) was born in Clyne, Sutherland, Scotland. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1839 on the Oriental arriving in Wellington. In Scotland he had managed a quarry in Brora. After a short time in Auckland working for Governor Hobson he moved to Nelson in 1843. He met Janet Allan (1821–1899) in Nelson who had emigrated from Cumbrae, Ayrshie, Scotland aboard the New Zealand with her family in 1842. Alexander and Janet and they married on 9th December, the day before leaving for Dunedin. On arriving at Kōpūtai on the Ann and Sarah on 30 December 1844, Sarah with Janet’s sister Isabella who married John Anderson. They built the first public house in Port Chalmers, ‘The Surveyor’s Arms’, likely named for the existing survey huts they repaired to live in. The site is the location of the Port Chalmers Hotel (List No. 2327). Here they held what was thought to be the first (European) public dinner in Ōtākou. Janet and Alexander carried on their hotel business until they took up land at East Taieri around 1852. Alexander was first mentioned as a freeholder that year.

The Taieri Plain as the largest flat land near Dunedin was appealing to settlers who drained and farmed the land. The Mckays were first recorded as living at the property by Rev. Thomas Burns in 1851. The house was built as a home for Alexander McKay and his family sometime in the 1850s on land they were farming. They had settled in East Taieri at the end of 1848 which they named Dunrobin after Dunrobin Castle in Sutherlandshire near McKays birthplace. The land adjoining Dunrobin, known as Bellfield (List No. 5240), was taken up by Janet McKay’s parents – John and Agnes Allan in 1850.

Built in Neo-Georgian style, the two-storey, square plan comprising nine rooms with a double-hipped roof is built of Baltic pine and kauri. Rebated weatherboarding on the front facade, decorative quoins on the front and dentils under the side bay window eaves. Four and 12 pane sash windows perforate the building. The south elevation features three two-paned double hung sash windows on the first floor, a central door flanked by two-paned double hung sash windows.

Alexander McKay died in 1879, but Janet lived for another 20 years. The McKay’s three surviving daughters, Janet, Isabella and Elizabeth continued to live in the house for over 80 years. Lemon records a Chilean Lapigeria, the flowers of which were shared with the sick of the community whom the sisters regularly visited. At some point the house was referred to as Braeside. The Cosgroves purchased Dunrobin in 1944 owned the property until the late 1970s. The property had several owners in the following years. At some stage after the 1970s a semi-circular porch with decorative brackets and pillars was installed over the central front door

The house has been largely relined, and the kitchen has been extensively remodelled with the inclusion of a concrete aggregate floor, many heritage elements have been preserved such as windows, board and batten ceilings, fireplace surrounds, the coal range. Recently the removal of the hawthorn hedge in front in 2020 revealed the house to the road. A replacement wooden fence incorporating the brick arch was constructed in 2022.