Description
Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority
Stuc-An-T-Saigart is a large 3-storey T-plan harled house with single storey pavilions. Originally the house of David Graeme of Orchil, factor to the 2nd Duke of Montrose, it was built 1750-53, designed by Alexander Gowan, possibly with input from John Adam (see Notes) and constructed by James Mushet, mason. The house, which was subdivided into 4 dwellings in the later 20th century, is situated to the SE of Milton of Buchanan, on the SE side of the Stuc-An-T-Saigart burn. Stuc-An-T-Sagairt is one of the largest 18th century houses in the parish and has a possible connection to John Adam.
The principal (NW) elevation faces towards Milton of Buchanan village, and would have been clearly seen from the main road at the time of building (later planting now obscures it from some angles). This elevation, originally symmetrical, comprises a central 3-storey, 3-bay block to centre with flanking 2-bay single storey wings, likely to have been service wings. The characteristic restrained 18th century character of the building, ornamented by a cavetto eaves cornice and roll skewputts, has been obscured by the addition to the single storey sections of non traditional overhanging bracketed eaves, which are carried across the central section between ground and 1st floor; other additions include timber shutters to several windows; a timber and glazed porch to the central entrance doorway, and dormers to the NE single storey wing. This wing has also been extended to the rear with non-traditional part slated platform roofed additions.
To the rear (SE) elevation, the 3-storey section has a central projecting single bay jamb of the same height. In the 20th century, flat-roofed dormers have been inserted into the roof of this section, and a lean-to single storey extension, possibly of late 19th or early 20th century date has been added to part of the SW single storey wing and left bay of the central section.
Interior:
The original principal entrance, at the centre of the NW elevation, leads into a hall which gives access to a dogleg stone stair with shallow risers, which rises the full 3 stories of the central section. Although the interior has undergone much alteration, the floor-plans appear to remain largely as built; some rooms retain roll-moulded cornicing and original joinery, including shutters and architraves, and to a second floor room is a reeded timber chimneypiece with roundels, a design common to several 18th century Buchanan Castle Estate buildings, with a round-arched cast-iron grate.
Materials:
Harled rubble. Mostly 12-pane timber sash and case windows; 6-pane to 2nd floor windows. Pitched roofs; graded slates; stone skews and skew-putts to central section. Harled and coped gable-head stacks to all original gables.
Bridge:
To the N of the house, a single-arch rubble built bridge over the Stuc-an-t-saigart Burn; of late 18th century date, it is likely to be the bridge referred to in the estate Cashier's account book of 1797-1798, recording the payment of £35 to John Bryce for building a bridge at Stuckentaggart (GD220/6/51).