Description

William Burn, dated 1831; extended 1924. 2-storey and attic, 5-bay Scots-Tudor house with slender conical-roofed towers and crowsteps. Base and band courses. White sandstone with buff micaceous quartz dressings; rubble to rear. Tudor-arch doorcase. Hoodmoulds, stone transoms and mullions, chamfered arrises.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: slightly advanced crowstepped entrance gable to centre with moulded doorpiece below hoodmould incorporating large incised datestone, groin-vaulted porch with decorative bosses and 2-leaf part-glazed timber door; bipartite window to 1st floor, slender 2-stage tower on return to right with narrow round-headed light to each floor (including attic) and single window beyond in re-entrant angle. M-gable to left with broad 5-light canted window at ground and hoodmoulded tripartite above, later single light immediately to left and blind shield above; bay to outer left with rectangular-plan 4-light window to ground and 2 widely spaced windows to 1st floor (that to left blinded) each breaking eaves in dormerheads. Recessed bays to right. All dormer and gableheads with blind arrowslit.

W ELEVATION: full-height canted 5-light window to each floor in gabled bay to right, bipartite window to each floor of gabled bay to left and slightly recessed centre bay with window to each floor (dormerhead to 1st floor); slender tower (as above) in re-entrant to left. Single storey link to left with crowstepped projecting (billiard room) beyond, with canted transomed French door and flanking window to S.

E ELEVATION: asymmetrical elevation with variety of elements including projecting wing to right with stair tower and crowstepped gables.

N ELEVATION: single storey offices forming small courtyard to left, and low 2-storey offices to right with recessed face of main block behind.

COURTYARD: altered to S but retaining canopy supported on cast-iron columns to N and E.

Mostly 4-, 8- and 12-pane glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows. Graded grey slates. Coped grouped and single stacks with some cans. Ashlar-coped skews with moulded skewputts. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative fixings and some decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: some good interior detail retained. Boarded soffits and dadoes; strapwork ceilings to 3 ground floor rooms, 2 with finely carved fire surrounds and overmantels. Outer and inner halls panelled with decorative cast-iron radiators, cantilevered dog-leg staircase with timber balusters and coombed ceiling to 1st floor corridor. Billiard room with decorative plasterwork frieze and billiard table by Morrison & Co of Edinburgh.

GATEPIERS: 2 pairs of pyramidally-coped square-section ashlar gatepiers.

Statement of Interest

Built for the Butter family, Faskally was criticised by Lord Cockburn, together with Lude and Urrard as 'gimcrack cottage houses'. The 1910 sales details record the original plan as "Outer Hall 22' x 14', Inner Hall 4'6" x 17'6" panelled staircase and corridor. Dining Room 28' x 19', Drawing Room 22' x 24', with 2 bay windows, opening into Library 25' x 20'. Billiard Room 23' x 19'1" opening onto lawn. Music Room 38' x 18' with parquet floor, Business Room 16' x 16' and 2 bedrooms on ground floor. Above - 11 family bedrooms. Separate wing with 7 servants bedrooms". Purchased by the Fosters who made some minor changes, Faskally's position was threatened in the late 1940s with the formation of Loch Faskally as part of the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board's Tummel-Garry scheme. However, far less land disappeared under water than had been feared, and the Hydro (having purchased the building for approximately ?1700) converted the house for use as a technical staff training college. Subsequently used a Forestry Commission Training School and Glasgow and Strathclyde Council education facility, the building was taken over in 1996 by the Faskally Christian Trust who continue to operate today (2000). The original listing mentions a '1720 brass sundial on later column in front of house', this is no longer in place but there is a similar example at Dalnasgadh House (2001).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17847749

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

• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)