Description
James Augustus Souttar, 1898; later to late 20th century additions. Large 2-storey and attic, 5-bay, Baronial villa, with 4-stage conical-roofed round tower, 3-stage entrance tower with rounded angles corbelled to square at attic, castellated port-cochere, ball-finialled crowstepped gables and conical bartizans, and bolection-finialled windowheads. Fine interior detail. Bull-faced Kemnay granite, stugged ashlar and dressed granite ashlar turrets; red sandstone to sides and rear. Deep base course; moulded string courses. Stugged and droved margins. V-plan corbelled oriel window; stone transoms and mullions, chamfered arrises and raked cills.
E (PRINCIPAL, SLUG ROAD) ELEVATION: entrance tower in bay to left of centre, with port cochere projecting at 1st stage, moulded doorpiece incorporating 8-panelled 2-leaf studded timber door, cornice and multi-pane leaded fanlight, and flanking lights clasping rounded angles; single window to 2nd stage and 2-light V-plan oriel window in crowstepped 3rd stage. Re-entrant angle to right with engaged round tower incorporating narrow light at each stage; bays to right each with bipartite at ground and single 1st floor window breaking eaves into stone-pedimented windowhead. 2-stage circular angle turret at outer right. Broad crowstepped gable to outer left with tripartite window at ground, large bipartite at 1st floor, arrowslit in gablehead and single stage 1st floor corbelled angle turret beyond.
S (WESTFIELD ROAD) ELEVATION: 3-bay elevation comprising slightly advanced gabled bay at centre with crenellated canted window at ground, bipartite window at 1st floor and glazed arrowslit in gablehead; regular fenestration to remaining bays. Flat-roofed single storey extension at left.
W ELEVATION: altered gabled elevation with large flat-roofed single storey extension.
N ELEVATION: altered elevation incorporating gabled bay at left, and single storey modern extension at right under pair of catslide dormers.
Variety of fenestration, predominantly out-of-character late 20th century replacements; some original decorative multi-pane leaded glazing to mullioned casement windows now obscured by later extensions. Tiberthwaite green slates, fishscale to turrets. Decorative cast-iron trefoiled brattishing. Coped ashlar gablehead and ridge stacks with square cans. Ashlar-coped skews with beak skewputts. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative gargoyle rainwater hoppers.
INTERIOR: fine decorative scheme in place including finishings in American poplar; moulded plasterwork cornices; panelled shutters; horizontally-panelled timber doors; fluted mullions; timber fire surrounds with moulded and corniced overmantels. Panelled stairhall incorporating corniced angle fireplace, columns in antis supporting landing of broad dog-leg staircase with turned balusters and decorative finialled newel posts. Compartmented ceiling with decorative plasterwork detail, panelled walls and columns in antis leading to stone fire surround with carved overmantel and canopy, and flanked by decorative multi-pane leaded glazing in casement windows to lounge; carved timber fire surround with mirrored overmantel to panelled dining room. Further large stone fireplace with herringbone-tiled surround set-back under monumental braced timber-lintelled inglenook.
ANCILLARY BUILDING, BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: single storey, L-plan, crowstepped ancillary with modern glazing. Coped rubble boundary walls; chamfered square-plan gatepiers with quatrefoil motif to capping stones.