Description

Circa 1734; extended earlier 19th century with 20th century additions and alterations. 2-storey, originally 3-bay, extended to form 5-bay, oblong dwelling house with 2 later gabled entrance porches. Harled rubble from Holylee Quarry with painted ashlar margins. Chamfered arrises to original windows. Gabled but without skews and putts.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: to left, original 2-storey, 3-bay house: later gabled porch to ground floor central bay with window to main gable; to left return, entrance door leading to original main door with incised lintel dated 1734 IB (for John Ballantyne). Window to ground floor flanks. 3 regularly placed bays to 1st floor. To right, later house of similar style adjoining; bay to 1st floor left, bipartite window to centre of elevation.

E ELEVATION: 2-storey blind gable-end with gablehead stack; eaves high rubble retaining wall adjoining to left.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: irregularly fenestrated. To left, extended house: 2 irregularly sized and placed bays to ground floor; to 1st floor, central timber staircase leading to planked timber hayloft entrance door with slightly raised catslide roof; 2 almost vertically aligned roof lights to right. Adjoined to right, original house: single window to ground floor left; central window to ? -storey with window to flanks at 1st floor.

W ELEVATION: 2-storey gabled end overlooking Holylee Linn; not seen, 2002.

12-pane timber sash and case windows to most; later 4-pane timber mock sash and case hopper windows to porches and central ground floor window of N elevation. 2 later roof lights to rear elevation. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods. Plain stock brick gablehead stacks with projecting ashlar neck copes and paired plain cans; to centre of roofline (former end gable of original house) earlier gablehead stack widened to provide flues for 3 cans.

INTERIOR: altered to form modern accommodation but stone fireplace with bead moulding to W gable of 1st floor.

Statement of Interest

This house, the residence of the Ballantynes of Holylee from 1734 to 1827, stands about 300 yards north east of the later house built by James Ballantyne on his marriage to Anne Henderson. The stone for this building came from either the quarry at Hog's Knowe behind it, or Holylee quarry directly below it. The original house was the 3-bayed section sited to the W and measuring approximately 44ft 9ins by 23ft 1 in. It is believed the house originally had a central staircase with a room flanking. Little remains of the house's interior save a stone fireplace in the upper W gable. A later 2-storey house was added to the E gable giving the 5-bay structure we see today. The dwelling house has been further sub-divided, an upper flat accessed by the external stairway sited on the N (rear) elevation. Still part of the Holylee estate, it houses workers from there and the adjacent Holylee Farm. Listed as a good example of a surviving early 18th century small country house, with similar earlier 19th century vernacular extension.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17835646

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
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  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)