Pentillie Castle

Pentillie Castle is a country house of late 17th-century origin, dated 1698 and 1699, with significant alterations of the early and late 18th centuries. It was considerably enlarged and remodelled around 1810 by William Wilkins senior, with work completed after 1815 by Wilkins junior. In 1967 and 1968, the Wilkins additions were demolished, leaving the late 17th-century wing with new pavilions built at each end.

The building is constructed of stuccoed stone with brick dressings. It has slate roofs with gable ends, and hipped roofs over the 20th-century pavilions with lead rolls to the ridges. Polygonal clustered chimneys are a notable feature.

The plan appears to preserve a wing of the original 17th-century house, with a projecting wing to the north said to have been a chapel, aligned east to west. The rear range contains cellars below, and from north to south comprises an office, kitchen, pantry and large dining room. The dining room may occupy the site of an original through passage, evidenced by a window on the garden front that was formerly a door, with an opposing door on the front. South of the dining room lie a large stair hall and drawing room, each heated by back-to-back fireplaces set in the front corner, probably dating to the late 18th century. The stair hall was likely reconstructed in the late 18th century, possibly on the site of an earlier stair. Also probably from the late 18th century is a lateral corridor built to the front of the wing, with further rooms added along the front, including a central entrance hall.

The Wilkins additions, which had formed two wings to the front and enclosed an inner courtyard, have been completely demolished. In their place, two pavilions of single-room plan have been added to the front, left and right, and a porte-cochere has been added to the right (south) end of the 17th-century range. In the early 19th century, the rear (garden front) was refaced and given an embattled parapet, which survives; the polygonal clustered chimneys also probably date to this phase.

The entrance front is symmetrical, of two storeys, with three central bays, one bay with attic storey to right and left, and the 20th-century pavilions slightly broken forward at each end, with walls projecting from each pavilion to form an entrance courtyard. The central five bays feature a ground floor arcade of granite Doric columns, dating to circa 1700, supporting later brick segmental arches. A central six-panelled door with overlight, frieze and cornice on brackets is flanked by two twelve-pane sashes. A modillion cornice sits above the three central bays; the attic storey of the outer bays each has a six-pane sash, cornice and embattled parapet. The 20th-century pavilions have two twelve-pane sashes, a first floor string course, moulded eaves cornice and hipped roof.

Attached to each pavilion is a slatestone rubble wall with coping, approximately three metres high and ten metres long, each with a doorway to centre and a terminal pier in granite on a moulded plinth with cornice and ball finial on a shaped stem. The wall to the left is swept forward, with granite quoins to the return enclosing a service courtyard, with an entrance gateway having brick piers.

The right side of the pavilion has two fifteen-pane sashes at ground floor and two twelve-pane sashes at first floor. The right end of the main range has a 20th-century porte-cochere with a slate sundial dated 1693, and 20th-century double half-glazed doors.

The left side of the pavilion has a four-pane sash and door, with a twelve-pane sash at first floor. Attached to the left is a single storey service wing with a hipped roof and an arcade of three round brick arches to the front, a sixteen-pane sash and six-panelled door with overlight. Attached to the left and forming an L-plan is a single storey range of outhouses.

The cellars below the main range contain a cellar below the chapel wing. At the front and rear of the northern cellar is a granite doorway, chamfered, with three-centred arch, roundel and pyramid stops, with initials "St IT", probably for James Tillie, and the date 1698 and 1699. The cellars are vaulted, with flooring partly in a herringbone brick design. A stone winder stair, now blocked, leads to the ground floor. On the north side are oval windows set in deep splayed reveals, now below ground level on the outside. At the right end to the front is a similar granite doorway with initials "RIT" and the date 1698.

The rooms on the garden front of the main range include, from the north, the office, which has a plaster ceiling with a quatrefoil set in an oval. The kitchen has a plaster ceiling with a bolection-moulded circle design. A narrow pantry lies next to the kitchen, and between the two rooms is a cupboard concealing an early 18th-century doorway with an eared architrave, pilasters and modillion cornice, with an outer segmental arch and key block.

The dining room, next to the pantry, has fielded panelling and a jib door to the pantry. The rear door to the room is now a window with pilasters to each side, opposing the door that now leads to the lateral passage, also with pilasters. On the passage side, this doorway has a Greek key surround with eared architrave, rusticated quoins to each side and a lion mask set as keystone above. This central position may mark the site of the original 17th-century entrance to the wing, which would have formed the main entrance in the early 18th century, becoming an internal doorway in the later 18th century. The dining room has a modillion cornice, panelled shutters to the windows and a plain chimneypiece at the right end.

The stair hall, the next room in this range, contains an open-well stair with stick balusters. The room is panelled with six-panelled doors with eared architraves and Greek key surrounds, a Greek key frieze and moulded cornice. A marble chimneypiece stands in the front right corner with an overmantel featuring dentils and carved wooden eagles with fruit.

The room to the end right has a marble chimneypiece with reeded surround, positioned back-to-back with the stair hall fireplace, moulded cornice and dado rail.

At first floor, to the end right, there is a bedroom and dressing room with complete fielded panelling and modillion cornices, and six-panelled doors. To the left of the stair well is another panelled room with moulded cornice. The end rooms to the left appear to have been partitioned in the mid to late 18th century, with a service stair added in the front range.

Pentillie Castle retains fine features of the early and late 18th centuries. The arcade along the entrance front may originally have been open at ground floor, leading to the main front entrance in the centre, and may have been the central range of a late 17th-century U-plan.