Balbeuchley House, Dundee

Balbeuchley House is a classical mansion attributed to William Scott, built in the earlier to mid-19th century with a billiards room addition of circa 1900. The building stands on falling ground as a 2-storey house with basement, arranged on a rectangular plan with 3 bays.

The main house is finished in finely stugged and margined pinkish sandstone ashlar at the south and east elevations, with a vermiculated basement. The west elevation and lower service block at the rear are stugged coursers. The billiards room addition is harled with ashlar dressings. Roofs are predominantly piended slate, with a glazed skylight terminating a half-piended stairwell roof. A piended lantern light sits on the platform roof of the billiards room addition. The double-pile half-piended service block roofs are at right angles to the rear, all with prominent lead flashings.

The main house features a band course at basement and ground floor level, a cill course at first floor, and a band course with moulded cornice at the wallhead, surmounted by a low lead-clad blocking course. Quoin strips define the corners. Ground floor windows have bracketed cills, moulded and panelled architraves, and richly sculpted consoles supporting dentilled cornices. First floor windows are lugged and architraved. Vertically channelled, shouldered and corniced wallhead stacks are linked and terminate in decorative serrated top bulbous cans (some replaced to the existing pattern during 1980s restoration). All windows throughout the main house are 12-pane sash and case with individual pane double glazing.

The service block has an eaves course with margined angles. Its windows are margined and lugged with chamfered arrises, bracketed cills and shallowly pointed lintels. The billiards room features ashlar margins, window margins and eaves course, though it has unsympathetic uPVC glazing.

The south elevation displays a slightly advanced central bay with steps on an ashlar base rising through an area with coped flanks. An Ionic columned porch in antis contains moulded round-headed shell-niche panels with aprons on the left and right returns, a dentilled cornice and pierced parapet with angle dies and moulded cornice. The entrance door has a round-headed, keystoned and moulded doorcase with fanlight and consoled lintel, with a first floor window above. Left and right bays contain windows at basement (with security bars and modern metal window guards), ground and first floor levels.

The east elevation shows the main house on the left with 2 basement windows (one blocked) and 2 windows at ground and first floor (the first floor left blocked). The service block at right has windows at ground and first floor levels, with a further narrow window at ground floor left. The billiards room addition occupies the far right, with a modern garage door at centre built within a round-headed opening that formerly formed a tunnel to the west elevation. A canted oriel window is at first floor left. A garden retaining wall projecting at ground floor right contains a recessed round-headed dog kennel.

The west elevation features the main house on the right with a central door at basement level and window to its left (both with security bars and modern metal window guards), and a blocked window at right, with 2 windows at ground and first floor. The service block on the left has 2 windows at ground and first floor (ground floor left blocked). The billiards room addition, slightly recessed at far left, has a garage door at ground floor and 3 windows at first floor.

The north elevation has a garden door with fanlight at first floor level on the right and a modern window on the left.

Interior features include a tripartite inner doorpiece with modern door, flanked by shell niche sidelights and fanlight reflecting the entrance porch arrangement. Original ornate plasterwork cornices and ceilings survive, along with consoled cornices at principal interior doors. Some original chimneypieces remain. The staircase is a scale and platt type with decorative cast-iron baluster panels.

The walled garden adjoins the house at the north, constructed of ashlar-coped rubble with a slab-roofed lean-to at the south-west. Rubble boundary walls run along the south, east and west sides, with round-headed gateposts marking the entrance to the steading at the south-east angle.

Balbeuchley House was built for Patrick Miller, proprietor of the estate from circa 1820 to 1876, probably replacing an earlier house recorded on both Edward's map of 1678 and Thomson's map of 1825. The building underwent significant restoration during the 1980s under the direction of proprietor Bernard Reilley. This work included repair and replacement of windows with individual pane double glazing that respected the original width of the astragals whilst increasing depth by 5mm. Plasterwork and roof lead were restored at this time, and matching balusters were salvaged from the South Road (linoleum) Mill in Dundee for reinstatement.