Hermiston, 7 Seafield Terrace, Portsoy

Hermiston, located at 7 Seafield Terrace in Portsoy, is a classical house built around 1820. It is a symmetrical, two-storey structure with a dormerless attic and three bays, featuring a west-facing main garden front and a regular east-facing rear elevation. The front is constructed from cherry-pointed squared rubble with tooled and polished sandstone ashlar dressings, channelled rusticated quoins, and rubble return gables on the rear elevation. The entrance has a corniced and pilastered doorpiece with decorative paterae in the outer architrave panels, leading to modern glazed double-leaf doors and a fanlight. A bandcourse connects the first-floor windows, which are set above a cill course, and there is a blocked and corniced wallhead with flat skews. The roof is slate, with deep panelled and corniced end stacks and a dark pottery ridge.

The rear elevation is also symmetrical and features three bays with a central door, flanked by single-storey rubble service wings, which are likely of an earlier construction. Each return gable has a single attic light.

The windows on the first floor of the front elevation and the rear ground floor have 12-pane glazing, while the front ground floor windows and the rear first-floor windows have 16-pane glazing, all of which are timber sash and case.

Inside, there is a wide entrance and stair hall with a plain staircase and a decorative plaster ceiling. Some first-floor rooms have decorative plaster cornices, and the principal rooms feature panelled doors with moulded door jambs and angle paterae. The skirting boards are deep and moulded.

The property is enclosed by high rubble garden walls, with a lower section facing Seafield Terrace that has slender cast-iron railings topped with urn finials. The entrance is flanked by plain square tooled rubble gatepiers, which have stepped caps supporting ball finials. These finials are adorned with stylised carved leaves and encircling foliated swag, each resting on an attenuated splayed base.