Description

Dated 1889. Tall 2-storey, 5-bay, rectangular plan, monumental school with dominant regular fenestration, pedimented and bracketed cornices and stepped gables. Narrow bands of stugged ashlar with polished ashlar margins and stugged quoins; stugged, squared and snecked rubble to sides and rear. Base, cill and eaves courses. Moulded doorways; hoodmoulds with label stops; blind keystoned oculi. Broad stone mullions and chamfered arrises.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Ground floor of gabled centre bay with large tripartite window under cornice with small centre pediment worded '1889 DUNNOTTAR PUBLIC SCHOOL', similar window above with stepped hoodmoulded incorporating relief carved panel rising into gablehead with stack. Bay to left of centre with projecting stone-roofed porch incorporating 2-leaf panelled timber door below window, and narrow adjacent part-blocked light at left, 2 vertically-aligned windows to right and 2 further windows at 1st floor, bay to right of centre mirrors this. Broad outer gabled bays with tripartite to each floor under centre strapwork carving and further carved panel in finialled gablehead.

S (PLAYGROUND) ELEVATION: regularly-fenestrated elevation incorporating ball-finialled gabled outer bays each with oculus in gablehead.

E AND W ELEVATIONS: largely blank elevation with large bipartite to centre at each floor.

8- and 10-pane glazing patterns in replacement windows. Coped ashlar stacks. Ashlar-coped skews with moulded skewputts. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers and fixings.

INTERIOR: centre corridors with flanking classrooms incorporating some decorative plasterwork cornicing, vertically-boarded dadoes and panelled timber doors. Dog-leg staircases with decorative cast-iron balusters and newel posts. Ventilation system shafts evident in some classrooms.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS, GATES AND RAILINGS: saddleback-coped dwarf boundary walls with inset ironwork railings, square-section finialled gatepiers and 2-leaf gates, all ironwork decorative. High coped rubble boundary walls.

JANITOR'S LODGE: single storey and attic, 3-bay, rectangular-plan lodge with hoodmoulds, decoratively-bargeboarded pedimented dormers and shouldered gablehead stacks.

Statement of Interest

Listed principally for its spatial contribution to the High Street of Stonehaven's Old Town, its massing is an important element of the streetscape, sited between the Sheriff Court and early tenements. Retention of the fine cast-iron railings, and relief carved detail add to the interest of this former School Board building. The Third Statistical Account notes that 'for a while navigation as well as technical subjects was taught to the older boys'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77778070

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)