The Firs, 70 Beltie Road, Torphins

The Firs, located at 70 Beltie Road in Torphins, is a two-storey, four-bay house built in the eclectic Canadian Arts & Crafts style, likely in the 1890s. The building features a lookout tower and is set on a site that slopes down to the southwest. The ground floor is constructed of brick, while the first floor showcases mock half-timbering. A deep granite ashlar base course supports a jettied first floor, which is topped with a cavetto eaves cornice. The windows are fitted with timber mullions.

On the southwest elevation, which serves as the entrance, there is a bay to the right of the center that includes a projecting four-light canted window at ground level and a tripartite window above it on the first floor, which is adorned with railings and a small set-back gable that has a door leading to the lookout tower. To the outer right, there is a pavilion-roofed entrance tower featuring a canopied, part-glazed timber door and a small square window above. To the left of the center, there is a small timber-framed bracketed window beneath the canted window, and an angled bay on the outer left that has a bipartite window at ground level, which reduces to a smaller bipartite window on the first floor, topped with a pendant finial at the projecting eaves.

The southeast elevation consists of three bays, with a bipartite window in the center bay that serves a projecting swept roof stair tower, and the lookout tower's top stage set back above it. The entrance tower on the left includes a bipartite window at ground level and a small square window on the first floor. To the right, there is a further set-back bay with an altered window at ground level and a bipartite window above. A single-storey sunroom with a polygonal roof projects at the outer right angle.

The northwest elevation features a bracketed single window beneath the canted window on the left, along with two additional windows in a single-storey leant-to bay at the outer left.

The original windows, which are decoratively astragalled (except for those in the tower and the altered window), include some small panes with coloured glass. The roof is covered with grey slates, featuring diamond-pattern slates and a decorative cast-iron finial on the entrance tower, along with some decorative terracotta ridge tiles. Tall coped brick stacks with cans complete the exterior.

Inside, the house displays a variety of decorative timber and brick linings, some cast-iron radiators, and unique window-opening mechanisms. There is a screen door with coloured glass and a timber-balustered staircase, as well as a kitchen fireplace located in a boiler cupboard. The first floor has later pine lining. A sunroom was added around 1980, and a garage was constructed in 1998.