Description

Style of Burn and Bryce, 1834, possibly incorporating earlier fabric, with later additions and alterations. 2-storey with basement and attic, 3-bay, Tudor gabled house with gabled porch to SW; pyramidal-capped, square-plan tower to N; single storey ancillary ranges to N, enclosing service courtyard. Coursed and stugged pink sandstone; sandstone ashlar dressings. Base stepped out at ground; moulded string course dividing ground and 1st floors. Stugged quoins; slightly raised, chamfered margins (droved in part); sandstone mullions; chamfered cills; stepped hoodmoulds. Tapering finials to gables and sandstone wallhead gabled dormers.

SW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: single storey porch projecting at centre with central tripartite window, blind square-plan panel above, flanking steps accessing 2-leaf timber panelled doors in returns to left and right; bipartite window aligned at 1st floor; small attic light in surmounting dormer. Tripartite window at ground in bay to outer left; bipartite window at 1st floor; small attic light in surmounting dormer. Full-height gabled bay advanced to outer right with tripartite window centred at ground; bipartite window at 1st floor; small attic light centred in gablehead.

SE (SIDE) ELEVATION: full-height gabled bay advanced at centre with single window at basement; 4-light glazing row at ground; tripartite window at 1st floor; bipartite attic light centred in gablehead. Bays recessed to left and right with single openings at basement; 5-light canted windows with tiered, stone-slabbed roofs at ground; bipartite windows at 1st floor; small attic lights in surmounting dormers; box dormers off-set to right and left respectively. 2-leaf timber panelled door in single storey porch recessed to outer left. Modern windows in single storey ancillary range recessed to outer right.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: full-height gabled bay advanced to outer left with tripartite window at ground; bipartite window at 1st floor; small attic light centred in gablehead. Steps to part-glazed timber panelled door at ground in bay recessed to right; narrow window aligned at 1st floor. Single storey ancillary range projecting to right; bipartite window at 1st floor in bay to outer right.

NW (SIDE) ELEVATION: full-height gabled bay off-set to left of centre with tripartite window at ground; bipartite window at 1st floor; small attic light above; later addition off-set to left at ground. Square-plan tower adjoined to right with bipartite window at ground; single windows at upper floors. Single storey ancillary range adjoined to right; large stair window recessed at 1st floor; bipartite attic light in surmounting dormerhead. Full-height, gabled bay advanced to outer right. Single storey ancillary ranges adjoined to outer left.

Predominately 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows; 3-pane timber dormers. Grey slate roof; gablet-coped skews; bracketed and finialled skewputts. Coped sandstone ridge and apex stacks with clustered, diamond-set flues. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: converted for use as hotel. Part-glazed, timber panelled revolving door. Plain plasterwork. Timber panelled doors. Main stair with sandstone treads, foliate iron uprights, foliate newel, timber handrail. Remainder not seen 1998.

ANCILLARY RANGES: single storey blocks adjoining house, forming near U-plan service courtyard. Predominantly harl-pointed sandstone rubble; stugged dressings. Timber doors; grilled windows. Grey slate pitched and piended roofs (missing in part).

IRON RAILINGS: decorative iron railings on low, coped rubble walls flanking front porch and set to side of rear addition.

COURTYARD WALL AND GATEPIERS: coped and squared sandstone wall enclosing courtyard with square-plan gatepiers flanking central entrance; pyramidal sandstone caps; gates missing.

Statement of Interest

Noted in the OS Name Book as "...an elegant building 3 stories high with a fine garden attached." No longer a private residence, this well-detailed hotel retains the majority of its original features. The NEW STATISTICAL ACCOUNT, completed in July 1834, notes that "...a mansion-house is proposed to be built at Mains next season". The fact that Armstrong, Blackadder and Thomson all show a house on site prior to 1834, suggest this new mansion either replaced or incorporated the previous structure. Rutherfurd records a Mrs Hood as owner of Maines in 1866, and James Grant Suttie Esq as its resident. Much of the estate originally associated with the house has been developed, although the N gate lodge, the former coachman's house, walled garden and S gate lodge are still in place (see separate list entries for the latter 2).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17847552

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

• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)