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Summary

Description

Dated 1861. 2-storey and attic, 3-bay former Dower House, now hotel. Coursed, rough-faced pink granite with raised dressings finely finished to margins. Long and short vertically banded quoins; gableted windows breaking eaves; overhanging eaves with king-post detail.

NE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: asymmetrical; canopied doorway supported by rustic timber columns to centre of ground floor, 2-leaf panelled timber door flanked to left and right by glazed vertical panels, 2-pane fanlight; window to 1st floor of centre bay; regular fenestration to ground and 1st floors of flanking bay to left; gabled bay slightly advanced to flanking bay to right, regular fenestration to ground and 1st floors, blank shield surmounted by carved coronet set in gablehead; single storey addition with window to outer right.

NW ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 6-bay; single storey, flat-roofed addition with crenellated parapet advanced to 3 bays to left at ground floor, window to each bay, 2 windows breaking eaves off-centre to right of 1st floor; 3 bays to right stepped down, ground floor obscured by 20th century additions, regular fenestration breaking eaves to 1st floor. Concrete addition to outer right adjoining with L-plan block (see below).

SW ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 3-bay; ground floor obscured by 20th century additions adjoining with L-plan block (see below); 1st floor of advanced, gabled bay to left blank, with small window breaking eaves to right return, window breaking eaves to bay to right.

SE ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 5-bay; window to ground floor of centre bay, ground floor of flanking bay to left and gabled bay to outer left obscured by flat-roofed single storey addition extending to left; bipartite window to ground floor of flanking bay to right; gabled bay slightly advanced to outer right, bipartite glazed doorway to ground floor, bipartite window to 1st floor, blank shield surmounted by coronet set in gablehead; irregular fenestration to remainder of 1st floor; infilled opening set in gablehead to outer left; gableted dormers to centre and flanking bay to right at attic floor. Piend-roofed addition to outer left adjoining L-plan block (see below).

L-PLAN BLOCK: to SW of main block. Coursed granite and granite rubble with rough-faced dressings. Irregular fenestration to ground floor; modern timber door to chamfered angle to N; predominantly gableted windows breaking eaves to 1st floor.

Variety of timber sash and case windows; some modern 2-pane timber windows with top hoppers. Grey slate roof with lead ridge. Coped granite gablehead stacks with circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: not seen 1998.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: rough-faced, battered granite gatepiers with pyramidal caps to SE; granite wall with granite coping.

Statement of Special Interest

Birse Lodge Hotel was originally called Huntly Lodge. It was built as the Dower House for the Huntly Marchionesses from Aboyne Castle and was part of the castle policies until it became an hotel in the early 1990's. The unusual banding of the long and short quoins is a technique used by James Campbell Walker (a pupil of William Burn) suggesting that he may have designed the building or have influenced the architect who did (through publications such as Blackie's Villa and Cottage Architecture, (1868).

References

Bibliography

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