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Summary

Description

Henry Edward Clifford and Thomas Lunan, 1910. 2-storey, L-plan multi-gabled large Arts and Crafts house, with unusual classical detailing. The gables have dentilled detailing and there is a Roman Doric columned entrance porch set into the re-entrant angle to north west. The house has concrete harl. The symmetrical garden front to the south has tall, square-headed, parapetted curved bays at the outer bays, linked by a curved verandah. The verandah rests on 4 columns. The roof has some grey and some rosemary tiles. Some of the windows are 8-pane timber casement windows; some are non-traditional replacement windows. There are a number of coped ridge stacks.

The interior has not been seen, but recent photographs (2013) show some rooms with timber panelling and a fire place set within a timber inglenook. There is also some decorative cornicing.

Statement of Special Interest

Monktonhall, dates to 1910 and is a substantial and unusual Arts and Crafts house by the successful Glasgow architects firm H. E. Clifford and Lunan. Using a variety of influences in its style, including Arts and Crafts details, and some influences from vernacular English architecture, it has high quality detailing and design in the swept gables, distinctive and prominent porch, external columned loggia and interior timber panelling and detailing to the main rooms. The house sits within its own grounds and retains much of its original setting within a large garden. It is now divided into four separate properties (2014).

The symmetrical garden elevation to the south is a particularly distinctive feature and the columns to the ground floor create a loggia effect which is characteristic of Arts and Crafts and early 20th century design. Whilst the asymmetric plan of the property is typical for Arts and Crafts houses of this date, the detailing is highly individualistic and typical of Clifford's imaginative interpretation of he English vernacular style. Particularly characteristic of Clifford's work are the deep eaves and the triangular gables, which are used here to great stylistic effect.

Multiple gables are a common feature in Scottish Arts and Crafts houses of this date, but whereas they are often crow-stepped to try to evoke a Scottish idiom, here they have a distinctive dentilled decoration and are swept, which is more common in English houses of the period. A photograph in The Builder of 1923 shows the south elevation of the house with the same glazing pattern as currently.

Henry Edward Clifford and Thomas Lunan were in architectural practice from 1909-23. Lunan was originally Clifford's assistant. The practice was based in Glasgow. Clifford was a successful architect who admired English architects. He built a number of residential houses for private clients, including a number in Campbeltown in Argyll and square headed parapetted gables, which can be seen here on the south elevation, were a trademark of his.

The house dates to 1910 and was previously called Glenholm. Michael Davis, in his book, The Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire, suggests that it may have been built for the Laing family and the house is known to have been occupied by the Mackie-Campbell family by the mid 20th century. Further research from the Valuation Rolls for Dundonald Parish note that the house appears on the 1911-12 Roll with the proprietor as Thomas Witherspoon.

The early-20th century date saw substantial houses being built in a number of country and seaside areas by wealthy families, keen to have homes in the country. This area of Troon was owned by the Duke of Portland and he laid it out between 1890 and 1914 with a number large, self-contained houses with lodges. These were popular as second homes for merchants from Glasgow, keen to have a home close to the sea and to the golf courses.

These houses were built using a variety of styles and the architects often took inspiration from a number of different sources. Monktonhall is no exception to this and demonstrates a number of stylistic influences.

References

Bibliography

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