Description

Sidney Mitchell & Wilson, dated 1909, extended to rear. 2-storey, 3-bay, rectangular-plan, Queen Anne detailed villa with low 2-storey service wing and small courtyard, good interior detail and terrace walls. Squared and snecked chlorite-slate rubble with contrasting red sandstone ashlar dressings. Part 1st floor cill course, mutuled cornice. Some pedimented and aproned windows. Stone mullions.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: centre bay at ground with keystoned, corniced and architraved doorpiece surmounted by dated moulded tablet with flanking scrollwork, step up to deep-set further architraved panelled timber door with deep decoratively-astragalled fanlight, adjacent window to right with moulded apron, and 2 windows at 1st floor. Gabled bay to left with square-plan 5-light window at ground giving way to stone balustrade (surmounted by later fire escape) and 2 widely-spaced windows, open pediment above with keystoned glazed oculus in gablehead. Lower bay to outer right with bipartite at ground and 2 windows to 1st floor.

W ELEVATION: ground floor centre and right obscured by flat-roofed extension, canted window to left with stone balustrade. 1st floor with pedimented window in open-pedimented gablehead to right, wide-centre tripartite to centre and single window to left.

N ELEVATION: variety of elements to asymmetrically-fenestrated elevation including panelled timber door with Latin inscription to left and square-plan 5-light window with stone balustrade to centre at ground.

E (REAR) ELEVATION: low piended bay projecting off-centre left with boarded timber doors at ground and small oriel window above, similar door and dormerheaded window on return to left and shaped courtyard wall abutting at right. Asymmetrically-fenestrated M-gable behind and later (raised?) gabled bay to right.

4-pane, 2-pane upper sashes over plate glass lower, and plate glass glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates. Cavetto-coped stacks with full complement of cans.

INTERIOR: plain and decorative cornicing; brass sash lifts; carved and moulded timber fire surrounds; panelled shutters; some boarded dadoes. Mosaic-tiled vestibule with screen door and margined glazing; top-lit stair with square timber newels and handrail and decorative ironwork balusters. 1st floor bedroom with timber fire surround, overmantel with inset mirror, cast-iron fire basket and glazed tiles with nursery scenes.

TERRACE WALLS: fine flat-coped decorative terrace walls with low square-plan piers.

Statement of Interest

Dun Aluim was used as a hotel, possibly from the 1920s until the 1970s when Major Stewart sold it to the local authority for use as a hostel for pupils of the nearby Breadalbane Academy. It is still used by the Academy (2001).

Sydney Mitchell and Wilson architectural practice was established in 1887 between the architects Arthur George Sydney Wilson (1856-1930) and George Mitchell (1845-1912). The practice worked on a variety of projects, including working with Patrick Geddes on additions to Ramsay Gardens in Edinburgh (see separate listings). The practice enjoyed great success in particular in banking and hospital commissions, perhaps being best known for it work on asylums. It also, as here, worked on private commissions.

Information from the Council archivist notes that the house was built for Hugh Handyside (2011).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77777797

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

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)