Description
Earlier 18th century house incorporating chimney of earlier house of 1589 earlier 19th century additions. 2 storey and attic, 4-bay main block with single storey block to NE; castellated kitchen wing to SW. Harled with sandstone margins and dressings for main block, gabled dormerheads; stugged, coursed sandstone with polished margins for NE block. Crowstepped gables.
SE ELEVATION: 4-bay, near-symmetrical main block. Door at penultimate bay to left; droved margin with heavily carved pointed arch hoodmould; escutcheon in tympanum; boarded and studded outer door; Gothick inner half-glazed door. Windows symmetrically disposed from ground to 1st floor in outer left bay; 2 widely spaced bays to right of door; penultimate bay to right, near-symmetrical but with 2 windows at ground, that to left later. 2 windows at ground outer right, window at 1st floor with dormerheaded window to outer right. Circa 1820 3-bay, single storey bow-ended block linked to main house by classical tripartite door, 6-panelled with 4-pane side lights, radiating fanlight; blocking course above. 2-bay bow to outer right; 2-bay right return with bow end to outer right.
SERVICE BLOCK:
Earlier 19th century single storey L-plan block attached at SW corner with battlemented screen wall facing entrance area; Gothick entrance of 2 storeys with blind upper pointed arch window; battlemented parapet with bartizan at left corner; later 19th century grid gate to left; rivetted thistle ironwork details: lower, coped rubble boundary wall to left; battlemented bay with boarded opening attached to main house facing SE.
NW ELEVATION: 5 asymmetrical bays, single storey bowed block to outer left; single storey kitchen block to outer right. Full-height turnpike stair tower off-centre to right; small windows; low, narrow door immediately to right with windows symmetrically disposed in floors above, small window under eaves; window at ground outer right. Tall, coped, rubble wallhead stack to left of tower, windows at ground and 1st floor below. 2-bay block with gable breaking eaves to left; blank bay to outer left; piend-roofed dormers, rooflights. Bowed block advanced to outer left; gabled block to outer right, window at centre.
12-pane sash and case windows; grey slate roof; crowstepped gables; corniced ridge, apex stacks; thack stanes; decorative floral cast iron ventilation grids.
INTERIOR: main entrance now through circa 1820 door; groin-vaulted vestibule, stone stair, decorative cast-iron balusters; bowed drawing room to right at front, delicate plasterwork; dining room behind, simple cornice, black marble fireplace; stair of earlier 19th century addition links with main block at 1st floor passage. Main block with interiors of circa 1740, painted panelling, chimneypieces with overmantel classical paintings; oak panelled room at centre, double lugged chimneypiece. Kitchen at ground left with early 17th century fireplace; armorial panel and datestone 1589 (from over entrance of earlier house) set into fireplace.
WALLED GARDEN, BOTHY AND SUNDIAL: walled garden to N of house, surrounded on 3 sides by rubble walls with sandstone slab coping. 1972 pagoda-like lych gate at centre of E wall, designed by William Schomberg Scott for National Trust for Scotland. Greenhouses against N wall of garden. Gabled bothy straddling W wall, rubble, slate roof, barred windows.
Yew hedge divides garden along NE/SW axis, 4 yew trees to NE of main front, both apparently dating from early 17th century.
SUNDIAL: dated 1700. Ashlar baluster sundial to NE of walled garden; gnomons.
IRONWORK: designed by Thomas Gibson-Carmichael, later 19th century. Numerous pieces of wrought-iron work around the garden. To SE of house a small gate with bird finials, decorative 2-leaf gate; gate and railings with thistle and floral motif to right of dovecot.
GATES AND GATEPIERS: ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal caps; decorative cast iron gates. Rusticated rubble sandstone bridge carries avenue over Bavelaw Burn; ashlar saddleback coping.
GREEN COTTAGE, CARTSHED, GRANARY AND STABLES: earlier-mid 19th century with alterations 1910-1939. Rubble with polished sandstone margins and dressings. L-plan block to NE of house comprising single storey and attic cottage; cartshed and granary and single storey cottage wing to N.
S ELEVATION: 3-bay cottage to outer left; door at centre; flanking symmetrical bays, gabled dormerheads. 5-bay stable, cartshed and granary block to right. 2-leaf boarded cart door immediately to right of cottage, boarded pedestrian door to right; window at centre; 2 basket-arched cart entrances to outer right; small granary windows under eaves.
W ELEVATION: rectangular-plan cottage wing; painted rubble, blocked openings, windows of varying sizes.
N ELEVATION: low, rear wall of stable and granary block; very steep slated roof with rooflights. Boarded door breaking eaves off-centre to left; rooflights. Barn entrance recessed to right; tall, modern gabled lean-to barn projects in front.
12-pane sash and case windows; grey slate roof, ashlar coping to skews.