Woodside Hotel, 80-82 High Street, Aberdour, Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay, Fife

Description

1872. 3-storey, 3-bay rectangular-plan hotel with central entrance tower flanked by single storey and attic and 2 storey and attic wings to west and east respectively. Tooled, coursed ashlar to principal block, base course, raised chamfered window margins, polished ashlar long and short quoins to arises, eaves course to tower. Red sandstone ashlar to ground floor and margins of east wing with harled upper floor; harled walls with sandstone ashlar margins and details to west wing and Doune Hall.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: slightly advanced entrance tower breaking eaves at centre; carved mask to keystone of round-arched entrance door, framed by pilastered doorpiece with decorative consoles supporting entablature. Modern window at ground in bay to left, pair of windows in bay to right. 1st floor window of entrance tower margined with strapwork pediment incorporating date inscription of 1872, bipartite window in bay to left, 3-light canted stone oriel corbelled out in bay to right. Margined window at 2nd floor of entrance tower, bipartite windows in gabled stone dormerheads breaking eaves in flanking bays.

WEST WING: asymmetrical 4-bay principal elevation, regular fenestration in bays to right of centre, pedimented doorpiece to doorway at outer right; stone base to flat-roofed canted bay window in bay to left of centre; doorway in bay to outer left. Tripartite window in large stone dormerhead breaking eaves in bays to left of centre; semicircular and triangular stone dormerheads to dormers breaking eaves in bays to right of centre.

EAST WING: asymmetrical 3-bay elevation with high base course; architraved door at centre with bipartite window to right; 3-light canted stone oriel at centred above at 1st floor, regular fenestration in bays at left.

DOUNE HALL: near-symmetrical 3-bay elevation; stop-chamfered margins to windows grouped at centre; bipartite windows centred at ground and 1st floors, arrowslit to nepus gable breaking eaves at centre. Window at ground in bay to left of centre, corniced overdoor to entrance in bay to right of centre, regular fenestration in outer bays at 1st floor.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: modern extension advanced at ground floor of principal block; pavilion-roofed stair tower advanced at centre with louvers to paired windows at 1st floor and single window centred above; regular fenestration at 1st floor in flanking bays; piend-roofed dormers breaking eaves at 2nd floor. Gabled rectangular-plan annexe projecting to rear of west wing; 3 bulls-eye clerestorey windows in north gable, segmental-arched clerestorey windows to side elevations. Irregular fenestration to rear of east wing and Doune Hall.

Panelled 2-leaf timber principal entrance door, multi-pane timber windows at ground floor, 4-pane timber sash and case windows to upper floors; multi-pane upper sashes and single-pane lower sashes to windows of west wing and east wing; various multi-paned timber windows to Doune Hall. French-pavilion roof entrance tower; with bell-cast eaves, fish-scale slating and brattishing surmounted by weathervane. Grey slates and saw-toothed ashlar skews to roof of principal block; grey slate roof with red ridge tiles to west wing; red plain tiles to Doune Hall and dormered mansard roof of east wing, coped gable apex stacks with circular clay cans to principal block and wings.

INTERIOR: largely modernised to principal areas of Hotel. Elaborate timberwork to upper part of annexe. Continuous heavy timber cornice below arcaded segmental-arched clerestorey window recesses to all sides enclosing panelled aprons with elaborately-carved projecting shelves; continuous dentilled cornice above; barrel-vaulted ceiling in decorative stained glass; segmental gable ends enclosing carved Coats of Arms of Australia and Great Britain to north and south respectively. 9-pane fixed-lights to circular clerestorey windows with freeform foliate carving to surrounds.

Statement of Interest

NOTES: The hotel dominates the upper E end of the High Street. The 1873 hotel stands at the centre flanked to the left by a wing which predates it (however it has been altered in the 20th century). The wing to the left was built as Doune Hall and gifted to the village as a recreation hall when the Earl of Moray's son Lord Doune, became of age in 1913, sometime after this the hotel acquired it and converted it to domestic use. There is a strong maritme connection at the Woodside, the hotel was built for the Greig brothers, it is acknowledged that there great grandfather Samuel Greig was the founder of the russian navy. Set within the keystone to the principal entrance is the half bust of 1 of the brothers. However the real maritime connection can only be appreciated by entering the hotel. To the rear of the West Wing is a rectangular-plan room surmounted by the upper section of the smoking room of the steam ship Orontes. The Orontes was built by the Fairfield Ship building Co, Glasgow, sailing her maiden voyage on 24th of October 1902. She was intended to carry mail and passengers to Australia and was run by the Orient Line . In 1916 she became a troopship and resumed her Australia service in 1919. She was sold in 1922 for conversion into an exhibition ship and was renamed the British Ship. At the end of 1922 she was repossessed by the Orient Line and reverted back to the name Orontes. In 1926 she was scrapped at Inverkeithing and the ceiling of her smoking room was salvaged and reassembled at the Woodside. The ceiling is a fine example of early 20th century interior design made up of expertly turned wooden carving and a stylised stain-glass ceiling.

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