Main Gate And South Lodge, Glamis Castle

The Main Gate and South Lodge at Glamis Castle were commissioned by Lord Strathmore and crafted by stone mason Alexander Crow in the late 17th century. They were re-erected on this site in the late 18th century, with the gates added in 1931, and are dated 1881 and 1931. This classical gateway features a bowed plan, flanked by castellated Tudor screen walls and a lodge. The structure is made of weathered droved ashlar, complete with a base course, eaves course, and carved rustic coping, as well as a deeply crenellated wallhead on the screen walls.

On the west elevation, there is a tall keystoned round arch at the center, flanked by niches containing satyres, and a band course that transitions into carved foliage cresting with a coronet at the center. The flanking pilasters are fluted and banded, each with a plain plinth and extending above the cornice into square-section gatepiers adorned with scrollwork and a stone-finialled cavetto cornice. The outer piers are lower and flat-coped, featuring carved lions standing on their hind legs. To the right, a crenellated screen wall includes a pedestrian gateway to the left, dated 1931, and two bipartite windows (blinded with diamond-pattern glazing) at the center, with a carved heraldic beast on the outer crenellation. The wallhead slopes down to a low corniced square-section pier at the outer right, adjoining a boundary wall. The screen wall to the left mirrors that on the right but includes a pedestrian gateway dated 1881.

On the north elevation, the central arch features nude reliefs in the flanking niches and pilasters as described above. The screen wall to the right has a pedestrian gateway to the left and a slated, piended lodge beyond, which has blocked windows to the north and a two-leaf boarded timber door to the east. The screen wall to the left also includes a pedestrian gateway.

The gates themselves are decorative wrought iron, featuring a coat-of-arms at the center.