Malvern House, 21, 23 Low Street, Portsoy

This is a mid-18th century dwelling house that was re-fronted and refurbished in the early 19th century. It is situated on a slope at 21 and 23 Low Street, Portsoy, and has a three-storey, three-bay facade facing Low Street, with a six-bay ground floor. The front is constructed of ashlar stone with polished ashlar dressings, while the rear, facing North High Street, is harled. The ground floor is now commercial premises and includes a central doorway with a decorative fanlight, flanked by shop windows, a further door and window to the left, and a pend entrance on the extreme right. A continuous band course runs above the ground floor openings. The first and second floors have symmetrical window arrangements. The outer bays of the first floor have Venetian windows, each with a blocked keystone to the central round-headed window and blocked imposts that form a cornice over the side lights. The centre bay on the first floor has a round-headed window with a blocked keystone and imposts. Three small windows are located immediately below the wallhead on the second floor. The windows are timber sash and case windows with 8- and 12-pane glazing with intersecting astragals in the curved window heads; the second-floor fenestration has 6 panes.

The North High Street frontage is two storeys and harled, reflecting an 18th-century pattern, with the ground floor appearing as the first floor from the Low Street frontage. It features ashlar margins around the windows and a central entrance flanked by windows, with a small window above. A wallhead gable is capped by a corniced chimney stack. The building has corniced end stacks, flat skews, shaped run-off skewputts, and a slate roof.

The interior includes a simple entrance and stair hall accessible from the North High Street frontage, featuring a curved staircase rising beneath a sloping ceiling. The ceiling is decorated with a small raised plaster figure of Hope, depicted with an anchor and three crossed nautilus shells. 1810-1820 beaded panelled doors lead to rooms on either side of the hall, along with plain dado rails. No original chimneypieces remain.

Rubble garden walls enclose a garden and provide a pedestrian entrance to North High Street. A decorative early 19th-century cast-iron pedestrian gate with spearhead detailing completes the garden access.