Description

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

Circa 1870 with 1963 addition. Gothic school with bell cote and pointed arched windows and adjoining gabled school-master's house with gabled dormers, timber porch and canted bay window. Both buildings have log-effect stonework. They were built as part of village improvements carried out by the local landowner, David Carnegie, in the same style as the church and Ardachaidh, with which the school and schoolhouse group well. The school and schoolhouse are situated in a prominent position by the entrance to Balquhidder, and make a positive contribution to the streetscape.

Schoolhouse: single storey and attic, 3-bay, L-plan villa with lean-to addition in re-entrant angle, which is situated to the rear. On the front elevation is a central gabled timber porch with a canted bay window to the right and a later door with sidelights to the left. On the upper floor are 2 gabled dormer windows. The side and rear elevations are irregularly fenestrated. The school building adjoins the W gable. The interior retains many original fixtures, including some timber window shutters, plain cornice and picture rail in the sitting room, timber staircase, chimneypieces in the bedrooms and timber panelled interior doors.

School: single storey, 1-room school with bell cote and tripartite pointed-arch window to S gable and 2 shouldered pointed-arch gabled windows to the W elevation. The interior of the school room has a timber arch-braced ceiling supported on plain corbels. A large out of character extension was added to the W elevation in 1963.

Materials: 3- and 6-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to schoolhouse; timber windows to school. Coursed sandstone, rounded on the surface to give log-effect to principal elevations; ashlar quoins and window dressings; local random rubble and quartz to rear. Coped stacks with yellow clay cans. Graded grey slate.

Boundary Wall: random rubble boundary wall to sides and rear; random rubble retaining wall to road with steps and cast-iron gate to schoolhouse.

Statement of Interest

B-Group with Parish Church, Ardachaidh and Old Library Tea Room. David Carnegie had made his fortune from banking, sugar refining and brewing in Sweden, and purchased the Stronvar estate in 1848, where he rebuilt Stronvar House. He then commenced to make a number of improvements in the area, including building the church, library and the house now called Ardachaidh. Both the Ardachaidh and church have the same type of stonework: it is not known whether the log-effect was intentional. The school has very similar detailing to the church, for example the cusped windows and arch-braced roof, so may have been built by the same architects, David Bryce and the Hay brothers (see list description of Church for more details).

This school was built as a replacement to one that was situated near the gate of the church, and is shown on the 1st edition OS map (1862). An old photograph shows the school before the rather unsympathetic 1963 addition was built.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77778299

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.

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