Description

Circa 1898. 2-storey, attic and basement plain asymmetric-plan Arts and Crafts villa with piended and corbelled entrance tower. Rendered; stone cills, ashlar dressings; crowsteps.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: advanced 3-stage square-plan entrance tower off-centre right rising above roofline of main block; central window to ground floor and 3rd stage; timber panelled door with moulded architrave and entablature to right return. Ground floor window to right of tower; 1st floor breaking eaves dormer window above. Single storey lean-to corridor link with 5 windows to left of tower; 5 square 1st floor windows above. Slightly advanced gable end to left of corridor link; single storey service wing projecting W from gable at ground floor, contained behind high coped L-plan wall stepping down to N; 1st floor window to right.

S ELEVATION: doorway to left (former window); window to right; all behind lean-to glazed and rendered modern conservatory at ground floor. 1st floor window to right.

E ELEVATION: basement in ground falling to N. Central French doors with sidelights and fanlights opening onto raised patio, steps to right with decorative iron railing; quadripartite windows above; central rectangular timber dormer window to attic floor with slate cheeks. Canted inglenook bay to left of French doors with small windows to canted sides; 1st floor window above; small attic window to nepus gable above. Large window to far left; 1st floor rectangular breaking eaves dormer window above. Ground floor tripartite window to advanced gable to far right; 1st floor window to centred above; small 1st floor window to left of advanced gable.

N ELEVATION: 4-bay with single storey service wing to left. Timber boarded basement door to left. 3 ground floor windows to left; bipartite window to right. Asymmetric nepus gable off-centre to left with 2 1st floor windows; 2 rectangular breaking eaves dormer windows to right. Lean-to porch to far right, window, timber boarded door to right return; scullery, washhouse and stores farther right

15-, 12- and 9-pane timber sash and case windows. Pitched roofs (dormer roof to tower); grey slates, crowstepped skews; beaked skewputts; coped ashlar and rendered gablehead and nepus gable stacks; circular clay cans.

INTERIOR: double-height hall and billiard room with adjacent inglenook; former drawing room with pilastered archway; original doors and door furniture.

BOUNDARY WALLS and GATEPIERS: random rubble wall with ashlar copes to W (along Ferryhills Road); timber boarded door inserted to left of square-plan ashlar gatepiers with lintel inscribed above 'GARTHHILL'; random rubble wall to E with snaps, dressed rubble archway to N leading to lower garden.

Statement of Interest

Garthill House is the name which appears on the Ordnance Survey maps. The boundary wall lintel inscribed 'Garthhill' is of earlier date and possibly relates to the neighbouring cottage at no 12 Ferryhills Road, originally known as Garth Hill. This large house, evoking the Traditionalist element of the Scottish Arts and Crafts movement, is situated on a prominent site on the main road leading to Inverkeithing from North Queensferry. The house was built for the painter Charles Martin Hardie RSA (1858-1916). It was used as a nursing home between 1918 and 1939 and was later converted into flats. The house has now been reverted to a single family dwelling and the current owners have reinstated most of the original fabric of the house including a double-height hall and billiard room to the centre of the plan. The sympathetic single storey, lean-to corridor linking the entrance tower to the N wing is recent but replaces an inappropriate 1960s modern link.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17794312

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

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  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
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  Old House Care and Repair