Description

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

Creag Mhor is a roughly L-plan, late 19th century villa with Arts and Crafts detailing. Set in landscaped gardens on the N side of the road just W of Aberfoyle, with a single storey principal elevation and a 2-storey block to the rear, the 1st floor of which is slightly jettied out over a pulvinated string course.

Creag Mhor is approached by a drive from the E, leading up to the E elevation. At the left side of this elevation is a single storey section with a gable breaking the eaves to the centre; to the right is a 2-storey, 2-bay gable-end section. A small rectangular porch, largely glazed with multi-pane windows, projects from the centre, providing an understated main entrance. The mullioned and transomed window above and slightly to the right lights the stair within. The W elevation follows the same basic pattern as the E, here with a pentagonal bay projecting from the left side of the single storey section, which itself projects to the W.

The S elevation, which faces the road, is near-symmetrical and of three bays, the outer of which are gabled with half-timber detailing and triple mullioned windows. The use of a single storey wing as the most public elevation effectively gives the impression that the house is a modest country dwelling, while the 2-storey wing placed unobtrusively to the rear allows the villa to provide substantial accommodation, suitably scaled within to give the desired amount of prestige.

Projecting from the rear (N) elevation is a small, single storey, piend-roofed service block, with a timber-boarded door to the E side.

Interior:

Access to interior not obtained during 2005 resurvey.

Outbuilding:

Closely adjacent to the NE of the house, this is a single storey, rectangular plan building orientated N-S. Originally a small service range, probably including laundry facilities, it has 3 doorways on the W elevation, the left of which has been partially blocked to form a window, and the other two remaining with timber-boarded doors. A rubble wall extending between this block and house screens the service area from the drive. The S elevation is largely opened out to form a garage door, but the opening may have originally been a smaller cart arch giving access to a small gig-house at the S end of the building.

Materials:

Squared and snecked whin rubble with red sandstone margins and quoins. Mostly double and triple mullioned windows with single pane timber sash and case glazing; some multi-pane glazing to E elevation. Pitched and piended roofs; graded slates, low overhanging bracketed eaves; simple bargeboards. Tall stacks, mainly wall-head or pitch, wall-end stack breaking eaves to W elevation; mostly whin with sandstone quoins, 2 rendered.

Statement of Interest

During the late 19th century Aberfoyle enjoyed great popularity as a tourist desination, encouraged by the establishment of a rail link to the village in 1882, allowing easy access from Glasgow and further afield. Around this time, a large number of substantial villas (almost all of which share a common design motif of half-timbered gables), were built on the road from Aberfoyle to Kinlochard; they were almost all used as second or holiday homes.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77778129

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

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)