Gagie House, Gagie

Gagie House, Gagie

A Grade A listed building dating from circa 1614, Gagie House is a 2-storey fortified house of originally rectangular plan, rendered irregular by single and 2-storey additions made in the 18th century. The building was internally reconstructed and externally embellished in 1893–94 by architect James MacLaren following a fire. A single-storey L-plan service wing was added circa 1920, and further alterations to the north-east elevation were carried out by France Smoor in 1980.

The house is built of rubble sandstone, harled with droved and margined angles at the south-west elevation and at the circa 1920 service wing; weathered whitewash is found elsewhere. Ashlar dressings and some margined quoins are present throughout. The roof is of grey slate. Windows at the west elevation are single and bipartite 8-pane sash and case with droved and chamfered margins and pedimented dormerheads; the dining room wing at the south has 12-pane windows; the north-east elevation displays various patterns, and many ground floor windows are barred. Corbelled bartizans feature moulded wallhead courses, lead rainwater goods and finialled conical roofs. Crowstepped gables with skewputts are found at the west elevation, whilst gable and ridge stacks are mostly harled with ashlar margins and moulded cornices.

The west elevation features a 2-storey entrance porch at a mid-18th-century re-entrant angle. It has a plain ashlar doorpiece surmounted by a heraldic panel with strapwork-like volutes and segmental pediment, a base course, margined angles, and two 4-pane windows at first floor within a parapet with gabletted crenellation. Two bays to the right follow, the left bay at the original wall plane having bipartite ground floor windows, a heraldic panel above, and a dormerheaded window at first floor. An advanced gable to the right, dating from the mid-18th century, contains bipartite windows at ground floor, a corbelled first floor, and a window with pedimented lintel. A mid-18th-century wing advanced at the far left has a blocked door, single and bipartite windows at ground floor, and three dormerheaded windows at first floor, with a bartizан bearing a window to the left. The left return gable has bipartite windows at ground floor and a central nepus gable with a gun-loop opening, a date stone inscribed 1894, and a gable stack with weathervane.

The south-west elevation presents an original gable at the left with a section of garden wall beyond. Two windows occupy the ground floor with a small off-centre window at first floor; angle bartizans with a window to the right are present, along with a stepped left skew, gable stack, and a 12-pane window at ground and first floor levels (dormerheaded) at the right return. A single-storey mid-18th-century wing at the right contains two 12-pane windows to the left, a round-headed door formed from a window, and a window to the right, beneath a piended roof.

The south-east elevation includes a window to the left and a paired window to the right masked by a modern conservatory, with a segmental window in a central gabled dormerhead. A lower L-plan harled and margined piend-roofed addition at the far right is masked by the conservatory at the left return, with two windows at the south-east elevation.

The north-east elevation is asymmetrical, with a small courtyard at centre behind a high wall. The entrance features a coped lintel surmounted by a bell in a wrought-iron overthrow. A harled semi-octagonal boiler house bay (1978) is sited at the left with a door and two windows. A mid-18th-century gable at the far left has a basement door, two symmetrical 18-pane sash and case windows, and a gable stack. A harled lower bay circa 1894 at the outer left contains two windows. The original gable to the right of the courtyard has a small ground floor window to the left and a gable stack with windows at the left return elevation. A mid-18th-century 4-bay wing at the right holds five small windows at ground floor and four smaller windows at first floor.

The interior remains largely unaltered since the 1893–94 reconstruction, including a panelled hall, a well stair with turned balusters, chimneypieces, and panelled window reveals. The dining room interior was reconstructed in 1980.