Description

Probably William Fowler, 1863. 2-storey, L-plan school with late 19th century wing to SW creating overall U-plan. Coursed rubble; rugged rubble detail to quoins, dominant wall stacks to S and window and door surrounds; dormer windows with timber boarding in apex.

E ELEVATION: Central gable ended porch; 2 leaf timber door; bipartite window in left return. Plain wall to left; bipartite dormer window centred above. Gable elevation to right; tripartite window to right; centred bipartite window in gable at 2nd floor. Gable eaves lower to right.

S ELEVATION: U-plan. Advanced E wing; plain gable wall. Disturbed stonework to left return indicates possible blocked door and window/lean-to. Central section of U-plan: 2 tripartite windows; 2 dormer bipartite windows. Advanced chimneybreast to right of each window; uneven sloping shoulders to far right stack. Advanced (late 19th century) W wing: bipartite window to ground floor left. Central door with flanking windows to right return (bipartite window to right); 2 bipartite dormer windows centred above ground floor windows.

W ELEVATION: late 19th century section to right. 2 windows to left; door to centre (site of former porch). 3 cast-iron rooflights; 2 dormer windows to later addition.

N ELEVATION: door to left; large tripartite window to right of door (covered in vegetation, 2003). Door with window to right of tripartite window. 3 dormer windows above. Outshot to right with catslide roof; door in left return. Gabled elevation to far right: door with window to left flank; 1st floor window to left.

Timber panelled entrance doors to E porch; timber boarded doors elsewhere. Predominantly 8-pane timber sash and case windows. All dormer windows sited wholly in roof. Pitched dormers; timber boarding in apex; plain timber bargeboards with exposed rafters; tile ridge cresting. Coped ashlar skews with block skewputts. Pitched, slate roofs. Gable apex stack to SE gable; tall and wide gable apex stack to SW gable. Tall and wide ridge stack to W wing (possibly former gable apex stack of earlier build). 2 wall stacks to S. All stacks coped; some circular clay cans remain.

INTERIOR: plain interior (partially seen, 2003); timber staircases to E, W and centre N with turned wooden balusters. Timber wainscot in classrooms; fireplaces removed.

BOUNDARY WALLS: rubble wall to S and E (damaged to N); curved stone coping.

Statement of Interest

An example of a Sutherland estate school demonstrating features common to many other estate properties designed by George Devey. London-based Devey was responsible for many buildings on the Duke of Sutherland's estates in England and Scotland and influenced William Fowler who was appointed as the Sutherland estate surveyor in 1857. Features which Fowler often used throughout the Sutherland estate are also present here, notably the steep sloping roof with neat dormers, prominent stacks, rugged rubble masonry and skewputts. The later addition has been neatly incorporated into the building suggesting one hand in the design. In July 1863, Fowler reported that 'Clyne School [was] complete and occupied'. The area experienced a rejuvenation with the opening of the railway in 1871 and the resumption of the mining and brick industry the following year. The principal minute book from a school meeting held (most likely at this school) on 3rd June 1873 mentions the parish school and the Free Church school and records the need for two further schools. This call for two additional schools is echoed in 1840 by the minister of Clyne in the New Statistical Account. The school accommodated the schoolmaster (who in 1881 was Mr Morris Myron) and his family. It remained in use as a school until 1903 when the new Clyne School was built. The building is currently unoccupied (2003). It is sited prominently beside a crossroads, north of Brora.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77779125

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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  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
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  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas