Folly, 27 Rubislaw Den North, Aberdeen

Folly, 27 Rubislaw Den North, Aberdeen

A 2-storey and attic, 5-bay villa dated 1881, possibly designed by Duncan and John Ross MacMillan. The building displays Scots baronial and gothic details executed in tooled coursed grey granite with contrasting light grey finely finished dressings. Features include a battered base course, raised margins to basket-arched openings, ground and first-floor cill course, dividing band course, machicolated parapet, and crowstepped gables with inset segments.

The south (entrance) elevation is near-symmetrical with an advanced entrance bay at centre. The bay has curved outer angles corbelled to form right angles at the crenellated parapet. The entrance comprises a roll-moulded basket-arched doorway with a decoratively carved 2-leaf panelled timber door and small-pane fanlight. Windows occupy the curved angles to left and right. An Italianate pilastered round-arched bipartite window sits at the centre of the first floor. A corbelled stone balcony with tooled pink granite panel reading "They Haif Sayde Quhat Saye Thay Lat Thame Saye" (motto of Marischal College) is flanked by bipartite windows with a polished pink colonette forming the central astragal. The flanking bays to left and right show regular fenestration at ground and first floors, with gableted timber dormers at attic floor. The left bay includes a 3-light canted window at ground floor, a window at first floor, and a gableted timber dormer at attic floor. The right bay has a 5-light rectangular-plan window at ground floor, a single window at first floor, and a wallhead stack at attic. A modern addition occupies the outer left.

The east elevation is near-symmetrical across 5 bays with roll-moulded reveals to windows. An engaged entrance tower rises at centre with a battered base and crenellated parapet enclosed by angle turrets. The tower has a round-arched doorway at ground floor with glazed replacement doors and fanlight above, and a bipartite window at first floor with central column and paired columns flanking with scalloped capitals. A 3-light oriel window sits at the second floor. A circular-plan angle turret rises above the roofline at the re-entrant angle to the left with a crenellated parapet. Narrow recessed bays flank the entrance bay, each with a single window at first floor. Gabled bays advance to left and right. The left bay has a 3-light bowed window advancing through ground and first floors with a parapet forming a balcony to attic floor, and a Y-traceried pointed-arched bipartite window at attic floor. The right bay shows deeply chamfered angles at ground floor with a window to each, and a finial at the apex.

The north elevation is asymmetrical across 3 bays. The centre bay shows regular fenestration. A gabled bay to the left has regular fenestration at ground and first floors. A gabled bay stepped forward to the right links to a modern addition at ground floor and contains a pointed-arched window at the centre of the first floor with stained glass and cusped tracery, a rose window set in the gablehead, and a finial at the apex. Angle turrets with conical roofs flank to left and right.

The west elevation has ground floor fenestration predominantly obscured by late 20th-century additions. A gabled bay advances at centre with 3 narrow round-arched windows inset and near-regular fenestration to returns. A recessed bay to the left has a lean-to addition at ground floor and a pair of windows at first floor. A gabled bay recessed to the right has a near-circular-plan 5-light window at ground floor and a window at first floor above, with a round-arched pediment above flanked by consoles.

Windows are predominantly 2-pane timber sash and case. The roof is slate with lead and felt ridges, stone skews with beaked skewputts, coped gablehead, wallhead and ridge stacks with decorative square-plan cans, and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The interior features a central 2-storey hall, arcaded and galleried at first floor. An imperial marble stair with elaborate cast-iron balusters rises beneath a coved ceiling with glazed inner ceiling light. The main rooms display a variety of period decoration. A cellar lies below the terrace with a window opening onto Rubislaw Den (observed 1986).

Associated with the house is a folly and terrace walls of late 18th-early 19th-century date. A curved terrace to the south-west has a pierced balustrade surmounted by recumbent lions. A circular-plan folly viewpoint to the south has a crenellated parapet.

Gatepiers and boundary walls comprise 2 pairs of square-plan ashlar gatepiers to the north-east and north-west of the house with chamfered angles and corniced necks, flanked by shallow quadrant walls. High rubble walls to the north have simple square-plan piers with shallow pyramidal caps.