Dunlugas House

Dunlugas House

Dunlugas House comprises a main house dated 1793 with an earlier house dated 1680 adjoining at an irregular angle to the rear. The 1793 house was designed by John Smith of Aberdeen, with interior work by John Fowler undertaken circa 1965.

The 1680 house is oriented east-west, a two-storey building of four irregular bays with a later piend-roofed additional bay to the east. It adjoins the 1793 house at the west, connected by a cluster of nineteenth-century linking blocks. The building is harled with Turriff red sandstone margins and chamfered reveals. A door to the south is flanked by ground-floor windows, with first-floor windows set close under the eaves. The rear elevation has four windows to each floor, mostly enlarged. Garages have been inserted within the piend-roofed addition.

The 1793 house is two storeys raised over a basement and extends across five bays. It is constructed of squared and coursed whinstone with galletting in a block and sneck pattern, dressed with polished red and cream sandstone. Features include a band course, eaves course, raised margins, and rusticated quoins.

The west elevation is the principal facade, marked by an advanced, pedimented centre bay. A horseshoe stone stair with wrought-iron balustrade and ashlar piers leads to the principal-floor entrance. The entrance comprises a tripartite door, with a deep-set four-panelled door and strip fanlight flanked by paired, engaged Roman Doric fluted piers, blind side-lights, carried frieze and cornice. Above at first floor is a window, with a bulls-eye window to the pediment between three dies. The flanking bays have windows at each floor, taller at principal-floor level.

The south elevation overlooks a garden terraced to the level of the principal floor. A low door positioned right of centre is flanked by windows. The outer bays each have two first-floor windows. A round-arched window with keystone and impost blocks sits at attic level at the centre, positioned between paired chimney stacks.

The north elevation is of later date, circa 1820, and features a piend-roofed addition adjoining the basement with a window to the right return and a door to the left. The principal floor has two windows, with the first floor and above detailed as the south elevation.

The east elevation has a centre bay advanced with a round-arched stair window. Irregular harled nineteenth-century additions, linking to the earlier house, rise to first-floor level. To the right is a later doorway at ground level, with windows to each floor in the outer bay. Further doors and windows to the basement exist to the left, with two windows at each floor above.

Sash and case windows with a predominating twelve-pane glazing pattern are found throughout. The roofs use concrete tiles, with a cupola lighting the stair. The skews feature ashlar coping with skewblocks.

Broad, corniced and margined paired ashlar chimney stacks with decorative cans are a notable external feature.

The interior of the 1793 house contains a tripartite vestibule door, half-glazed, with a semi-circular fanlight. The hall features paired Ionic columns and pilasters between doors to the principal rooms. A dog-leg ashlar stair, lit by a round-arched stair window and cupola, ascends through the building.

The library, located to the left of the hall and formerly used as a dining room, features a trompe l'oeil illusionistic painted plaster ceiling circa 1830, simulating carved and panelled wood. A panelled dado and grey marble fireplace complete the room.

The drawing room, to the right of the hall, was decorated by John Fowler circa 1965 and is hung with pleated grey silk. It features plasterwork ceiling and cornice with a white marble fireplace containing a Neo-classical brass grate.

The dining room, formerly the library and located to the rear, contains a marble fireplace with a window above. A door opens to the terrace. The room is fitted with six panelled doors with panelled ingoes.