Stables, Auchterhouse Mansion

A late 18th-century complex of ancillary buildings to the east of the mansion house, comprising a covered standing, stable and coach house, and a former brewhouse. The group was substantially altered in the early 20th century when the brewhouse was converted to a squash court and a garage was added. The conversion and extension were carried out by the Dundee architectural practice J Donald Mills and Godfrey D B Shepherd, commissioned by the then-owner W H Valentine following his purchase of the property in 1923.

The buildings form an asymmetrical group arranged roughly north to south. They are constructed of white painted rubble with painted weatherboarding to the garage and vertically boarded timber with timber-framed lattice work above to the covered standing.

The stable block occupies the centre of the composition. Its east elevation features a timber boarded and glazed door off-centre to the left, a bipartite window to the left, and a single window to the right. A tile-hung hayloft dormer with a boarded timber door sits at the centre. The squash court stands to the south with a door to its gable and a louvred ventilator at the apex. The covered standing to the north, slightly recessed, displays weatherboarding to the apex of its gable.

The west elevation is dominated by a weatherboarded garage advanced to the left, with a large two-leaf door to the north gable and a semi-circular fanlight above.

The buildings retain various multi-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to the stable and coach house, though the squash court has later uPVC glazing. Pitched grey slate roofs cover all structures, with linear rooflights to the squash court and conventional rooflights to the stable, coach house and covered standing.

The interior of the squash court contains a timber well stair serving a viewing gallery, with slender steel roof trusses supporting the roof structure.

This complex forms an important part of the wider Auchterhouse estate, which developed from the late 18th to early 20th century. The ancillary buildings contribute significantly to understanding the estate's development and enhance the architectural and historic setting of the Old Mansion House. Auchterhouse itself was an important country seat that passed through the families of the Ogilvys of Airlie, Earls of Buchan, and Earls of Strathmore before returning to the Ogilvys in 1715. James Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, was the nephew of James III of Scotland and received the titles of Earl of Buchan and Lord Auchterhouse in 1469. The main house incorporates fragments of a 13th-century castle formerly owned by Sir John Ramsey, a close associate of William Wallace, who is commemorated by the Wallace Tower—a Scheduled Monument—located to the south-east of the house.