Description

1866, Charles Kinnear of Peddie & Kinnear. Additions by Sir Robert Lorimer, 1913 (library, lodge gates). Large Barional house on landscaped hilltop setting. Randomly asymmetrical composition; roughly square on plan with gable tower and canted bay projections; small courtyard within (now enclosed). Largely 3-storey, partly with attics and 5-storey entrance tower. Courses with polished dressings; stringcourses; triangular-pedimented and finialled dormer-heads; crowstepped gables with fishscale slated roofs at the conical caps of turrets; end and ridge stacks (corniced and coped).

NE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: large square entrance tower projecting off centre, arched doorway with inscription panel over; projecting arched window with colonettes and semi-circular corbelled balcony above; 2 windows 3rd stage with corbelling of top stage with corbelling of top stage stepped over them; plain top stage with single windows, machicolated parapet, circular stair tower with conical roof at S angle: circular stair outshot links to gable with bipartite windows to left, circular angle turret beyond; on right single bipartite bay with corbelled wallhead and corbelled angle turret, circular at 2nd floor level, corbelled to square at attic. Single-storey range lies on NE/SW axis (to right of front), originally with symmetrical end gables (crowstepped,with pyramid-roofed open belfries) to each front, garden gable subsequently replaced with Lorimer's library addition extending at W gable.

SE (SIDE) ELEVATION: semi-symmetrical 3-storey arrangement with bartizans corbelled out at upper level;advanced gable with bowed bay, left, progressively corbelled to canted at 2nd floor level and square at attic; canted bay right, progressively corbelled to square at attic; canted bay right, each with mullioned and transomed 4, 2 and single light windows; central section 3 windows ground floor, large 3-light at first, dormer headed windows breaching wallhead (centre pediment larger, with circular panel). First floor balcony corbelled out between projecting bays (on cable corbel mouldings), and circled out on bold corbellings;pierced balustrade. R gable crowstepped; L gable crocketted with elaborate stack rising above.

SW (GARDEN) ELEVATION: segmental-arched openings, ground floor; round-arched first floor openings; square-headed upper storey with pedimented wallhead gables. Bartizans at each angle; wide projecting bay on right, curved at angles, corbelled to square above, step-gabled with centre stack. Mullioned and transomed glazed opening at first floor, recessed in segmental-arch, and incorporating door to balustraded double perron leading to walled garden. Garden steps and ball-finialled walls, 1867.

INTERIOR: rich and finely detailed. Principal state rooms on first floor; ground floor formerly servant's quarters (now converted to flat, 1990).Entrance hall wainscotted, with elaborate vine carved and gilded cornice; main stair with cast-iron balustrade set in carved panelled newels and timber rails; straight-coved ceiling with restored geometric painted decorations. Large transomed 3-light stained-glass stair window. 'Music Room' oak panelled, with mixed Gothic and Renaissance motifs: gothic niche over elaborate early Gerogian oak chimney-piece elliptically arched recess.

DRAWING ROOM: deep-coved ceiling with acanthus, palmetted, egg-and-dart cornice; panelled ceiling; screens with corinthianesque columns separating end bays; fitted bookcases, panelling, chimneypieces and French overmantle mirror. Secondary room with outstanding early Renaissance white and pink-veined marble chimneypiece with classical figurative frieze (cupids, urn centre); wallpaper later 19th century.

Library (addition): Lorimer; top-lit with glass-domed oculus set in square flat-coffered ceiling deep cornice frieze with garland sculptured panels; original bookcases with carved panels incorporating cameos framed by caryatid aedicules.

LODGE 1869-70. L-plan single-storey asymmetrical gate lodge. Snecked rubble, slated roof with projecting eaves, cross-braced.

Front elevation: projecting timber porch integrated with small verandah on right; canted bay, corbelled to square, on left. Tall axial stack (copied; altered). Modern additions to rear. Rusticated gatepiers; scalloped wrought-iron railings on low boundary walls (Lorimer, 1913).

Statement of Interest

Built for 'John Murray of Galashiels' (pelt-monger). Close stylistic affinities with Peddie and Kinnear's houses, Crawfordtown (now school), Nithsdale of 1863, and Kinnettles House, Angus, 1865.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17570063

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)