Holly House, 174 High Street, Montrose

Holly House, 174 High Street, Montrose

Holly House is an early 18th-century town house incorporating 17th-century fabric, with 19th-century alterations and additions, and notable early 18th-century interior decoration. The building is Grade A listed. It comprises two storeys, an attic and basement, with an irregular plan created from two connecting houses. The external walls are of sandstone, variously squared rubble and part harl, with stugged ashlar to the gabled entrance front. The stonework features plain and raised margins, chamfered to the entrance front.

The south elevation in Doig's Close consists of a 5-bay wing with a raised principal floor. A central panelled door with a large 9-pane fanlight is flanked by symmetrical bays at principal and first floors, with a window centred above the door at first-floor level. Basement windows are positioned to the right (single) and extreme left (paired). A single-bay link section to the left of the 5-bay wing contains a window at principal floor and a dormer-headed window at first floor.

The east elevation features a gabled entrance spanning and terminating the close, approached by a 6-step flight with cast-iron railings to the raised principal floor. Two-leaf panelled doors are surmounted by a 2-pane rectangular fanlight with decorative wrought-iron screen, flanked by narrow windows, with a window centred above at first-floor level. Steps lead down to a basement entrance, which has a door to the left and a window to the right.

The north elevation in Doig's Close is a short 2-bay wing of single storey with basement and attic, containing a door to the right and windows at ground and basement to the left.

The north elevation facing Close 168 High Street comprises a rubble stone gable end to the right and the rear of the 5-bay wing to the left, with irregular fenestration.

The west elevation presents a 7-bay garden front with bays grouped 5-2. A doorway with rectangular fanlight is positioned at the centre of the 5 bays. The fenestration is regular, with windows at principal (first) floor being larger than those below. Two gable-headed dormers and three modern skylights are present.

The south elevation to the garden includes a gable end to the left; windows to the right at basement and principal floor and a window in the gablehead. A 2-bay wing to the right has a window to the left at ground floor, a door to the right, and two gable-headed dormers.

Windows throughout are of 4, 8 and 12-pane timber sash and case design. The roofing comprises grey slate pitched roofs to the west and south, a corrugated iron roof to the north wing, stone skews, a brick gablehead stack to the south, and a brick ridge stack to the southeast.

The interior is of exceptional quality with intact early 18th-century panelling throughout all wings on the principal floor, complemented by plasterwork and panelled doors to match. Interconnecting rooms are supplemented by a mid-19th-century hall running north-south, created at the same time as the gabled entrance front. A staircase at the centre of the 5-bay wing shows evidence of extensive alterations, including probable changes in floor levels. A stone staircase to the south is probably part of the 19th-century alterations. The fall of ground from High Street to Basin means the basement in Doig's Close becomes the ground floor on the garden front.

The ground floor kitchen retains a flat arch of a 17th-century fireplace along the north wall. The Drawing Room features full-height early 18th-century panelling with lugged doorcases, full-height fluted and reeded pilasters dividing picture panels with ovolo-moulded caps. A later Georgian chimneypiece, dating to circa 1800-1830, has roundels flanking a moulded frieze and a plain central tablet of white-painted black marble beneath.

The Dining Room continues the panelling scheme with fluted pilasters, reeded to the dado and bearing elaborate William Adam style Corinthianesque capitals. Lugged doorcases and a dentil cornice are present. A simple early 19th-century black marble chimneypiece sits in the north wall. The entrance from the hall is via a stone bolection-moulded doorpiece, originally external before the 19th-century additions.

The Study features panelling throughout and a deep bolection-moulded chimneypiece with panelled stiles and a triple keyblock at centre on the south side.

Rubble stone boundary walls enclose the garden to the rear (west).