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Summary

Description

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

2 main building periods: original 1774 3-bay, 2-storey former manse (with 1825 service wing to NW) significantly extended to E in 1890 with single bay, 2-storey addition to principal (S) elevation and adjoined rear (NE) gabled wing. Overall appearance unified at time of 1890 alterations with exposed timber rafters, overhanging eaves, timber bargeboards to gables with tie braces and pendants. Slightly advanced gabled entrance bay to centre of original house with 20th century porch at ground floor. Windows set close to eaves. Random rubble with slaister pointing, pitched grey slate roofs.

Principal (S) elevation of original manse: porch with window to slightly advanced central entrance bay, door to right return. Flanking windows, windows to 1st floor arranged above openings below, circular recess set within gable of entrance bay. 1890 addition attached to right; canted 3-light window to ground floor, window set above. Gabled elevations to E and W with 1825 and 1890 rear wings extending northwards, various openings. Rear (N) elevation: advanced windowless gabled wings to right and left; store door to left wing, single storey lean-to to right wing. Original manse setback; small, low, single storey outshot at ground floor with 1st floor stair window above, window at ground and 1st floor to left.

Timber boarded doors, timber 4-pane and multi-paned sash and case windows, various rooflights. Corniced ashlar gable apex stacks to each gable including slightly advanced entrance bay, coped ashlar ridge stack bridging original E gable with 1890 addition, clay cans.

Interior: modernised interior with some original features including working timber panelled shutters and simple cornices to principal rooms. Higher ceiling to ground floor room of 1890 addition. Timber roof joints to original manse with timber pegs and Roman numerals.

Boundary Walls and Gatepiers: rubble boundary walls to S and N, rubble copes - rebuilt to S, in disrepair to N. Weathered square-plan ashlar gatepiers to S with heavily weathered shallow pyramidal corniced caps.

Statement of Special Interest

Creag an Tuirc House was built as the manse to Balquhidder Old Parish Church. In 1855 the Heritors decided that a new church designed by David Bryce should be built adjacent to the old. The old church fell into disrepair and ruin. The house is a good example of a small, late 18th century manse subsequently enlarged and aggrandised reflecting the social and cultural trends within the church and local community. It has undergone two major programmes of enlargement: in 1825 a kitchen and service wing was added to the rear; in 1890 a considerably larger programme of enlargement and renovation was carried out. The Heritors' minutes of 1888 record that the then minister, Rev David Cameron, asked the Heritors to provide him with a study or library. In 1889 work begun and the new wing was built including a large room to the ground floor probably serving as the requested library/study. The minutes also indicate that it was at this time the bargeboards and rafters were added to the house with 'joiner work' amounting to £204.2.4. It is interesting to note that the exposed rafters to the original manse are purely ornamental and serve no structural purpose. The Heritors minutes record the final cost of the improvements as £617.14.4.

The house occupies a prominent position on the Balquhidder Road. Directly behind the house rises the imposing outcrop of Creag an Tuirc (Boars Rock), the ancient rallying place of the clan McLaren. The 1st edition OS map depicts a shelterbelt of trees surrounding the house with a formal lawned area to the front and an enclosed garden/orchard to the rear. The garden to the front and rear are now lawned (2003), remnants of the shelterbelt survive including a mature Wellingtonian to the N. There is a small ha-ha running to the W and E of the former rear garden/orchard with a stone wall to the N. The outline of a drive to the rear of the house is decipherable, although now grassed over, (2003). The present and former drive encircled the house giving access to a stable and byre situated to the E of the house (the stable and byre are a private residence now, 2003). To the NE of the house, within its grounds, is a spring with flanking stone steps leading to a collection pool. It is of notable interest that the 1774 house aligns nearly exactly with the Old Parish Church. It is possible that there was a direct path linking the buildings, this is not however shown on the 1st or 2nd edition maps and is speculation. The manse was sold by the Church of Scotland in 1997 and is now privately owned, 2003.

References

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