Pitpointie Farmhouse

Pitpointie Farmhouse

Built in 1883 for George Willsher, a wine and spirit dealer from Dundee, Pitpointie Farmhouse is a substantial two-storey gabled farmhouse with lower two-storey service wings arranged in a U-plan. The gabled canopy at the entrance porch, probably slightly later in date, is attributed to Charles Edward and Thomas S Robertson. The building replaces an earlier farmhouse and steading shown on a drawing dated 1759.

The house is constructed of stugged snecked rubble with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. It features a rusticated base course with rusticated quoins. Openings consist mostly of single windows, with a notable pair of two-storey canted windows on the south elevation with droved ashlar and aprons, capitalled mullions and moulded cornices at ground floor level, plate-glass and four-pane glazing, and stop-chamfered reveals; the stair window is chamfered to its reveals.

Deep eaves contain moulded rafter and purlin ends with moulded bargeboards. Corniced ridge chimney stacks feature many original tall cream cans and terracotta decoration. Rectangular and round cast-iron rainwater goods display decorative moulding, brackets and hoppers. Elaborate cast-iron finials ornament the gables and dormerheads, though some are missing.

On the west (entrance) elevation, a single-storey gabled porch with an advanced window at right and door at right return is sheltered by a gabled canopy with decorative bargeboards. The canopy is supported by Peterhead granite colonettes with bulbous capitals set upon tiered, square chamfered and octagonal droved ashlar bases. A single window at ground floor to the right bears an initialled panel 'GEW'. A bipartite window sits at ground floor left with two windows at first-floor level. A shouldered chimney stack rises from the wallhead through the eaves. The lower two-storey service wing at the far left has a door at ground-floor centre with two dormerheaded windows breaking through the eaves.

The south elevation is three bays wide and symmetrical. Each outer bay contains a two-storey canted window with a facetted roof. The centre bay has a tripartite window at ground floor with corbelled cill and pilastered margins and mullions, above which sits a corniced parapet with decorative cast-iron balustrade. Two windows occupy the recessed second floor, with a gabled and finialled dormer featuring a segmental window above.

The east elevation includes a cross-plan timber-framed conservatory on a stone base at left, with an adjoining brick chimney stack. Ground-floor windows are positioned at the far left and right, with a bipartite window at ground floor right. Two windows occupy the first floor. A blank bay sits at the far right.

The north elevation features a tripartite mullioned stair window at centre, with windows at ground and first floors to the right. The lower two-storey wing advanced at left has a slightly later addition that is recessed and further advanced, with a gabled porch at the re-entrant angle. Windows are positioned at left with two dormerheaded windows breaking through the eaves at left return elevation, and a ground-floor window at the gable. A similar wing advanced at right lacks this addition; its left return elevation displays a blocked door and two windows at ground floor with a dormerheaded window breaking through the eaves above, and a ground-floor window at the gable.

The interior retains most original features. Richly decorated plaster cornices, beams, consoles and compartmentalised ceilings ornament the principal ground-floor rooms. Original chimneypieces are present, and the stairs feature carved balusters with tapestry affixed to the wall and a stained-glass window. The bathroom contains an unusual frieze of probably stencilled aquatic scenes. The richness of the plasterwork is a significant factor in the listing of this building.

A single-storey rectangular-plan game store stands to the southeast of the house, constructed of rubble walls and now unroofed. It has a door in the west elevation and a window in the south elevation. The interior contains stone slab shelves. When listed in 1992, this game store was described as having a dilapidated thatch roof; it was subsequently updated in a 2021 listing review as part of the Thatched Buildings Listing Review.

An enclosing rubble wall with squat ashlar gatepiers (possibly cut-down) with ball finials and modern wrought-iron gates surrounds the property. A flat-coped rubble walled garden stands to the north of the house with cast-iron gates at its south wall. A rectangular-plan building of snecked rubble with a slate roof adjoins the southeast corner, presumed to be a coach house; it has a two-leaf door and a single door, though the interior has not been examined.

Two widely spaced round-section gatepiers with ogival caps and adjoining rubble quadrant walls mark the entrance to the farmhouse and steading to the south. Two partly chamfered square-section timber piers with ball finials stand at the west entrance to the farmhouse and steading; these may derive from the original Dundee and Newtyle Railway, which crossed the public road at approximately this point. The railway, which opened in 1831, originally passed close by Pitpointie Farm but was re-routed through Dronley in 1860.