Game Larder, Pitpointie Farmhouse

Game Larder, Pitpointie Farmhouse

Built in 1883 for George Willsher, a wine and spirit dealer from Dundee, this is a substantial two-storey farmhouse with lower two-storey service wings arranged in a U-plan. The house was attributed to architects Charles Edward and Thomas S Robertson, with the gabled canopy at the entrance porch added probably slightly later. The building replaced an earlier farmhouse and steading that occupied the site, documented in a drawing dated 1759.

The farmhouse is constructed of stugged snecked rubble with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The base course features rustication, and ashlar quoins rise at the corners. The deep eaves are finished with moulded rafter and purlin ends and moulded bargeboards. The ridge chimney stacks are corniced and retain many original tall cream cans and terracotta decoration. Rainwater goods are of rectangular and round cast iron with decorative moulding, brackets and hoppers. Elaborate cast-iron finials crown the gables and dormerheads, though some are missing.

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

The south elevation is three bays wide and symmetrical. Each outer bay features a two-storey canted window with a facetted roof and droved ashlar with aprons, capitalled mullions and moulded cornice at ground floor, with plate-glass and four-pane glazing. The centre bay contains a tripartite window at ground floor with a corbelled cill and pilastered margins and mullions, topped by a corniced parapet with decorative cast-iron balustrade. Two windows occupy the recessed second floor, and a gabled, finialled dormer with a segmental window pierces the roof. The reveals to the south are stop-chamfered, with chamfering to the stair window.

The east elevation displays a cross-plan timber-framed conservatory on a stone base at the left, adjoined by a brick chimney stack, with a window at ground floor far left. Additional windows at ground and first floors occupy the right portion, with a blank bay at the far right.

The north elevation features a tripartite and mullioned stair window at the centre, with a window at ground and first floors to the right. A lower two-storey wing advances at the left with a slightly later recessed and further advanced addition, gabled porch at the re-entrant angle, window at the left, and two dormerheaded windows breaking through the eaves at the left return elevation; a ground floor window sits at the gable. A similar wing advances at the right without an addition; a blocked door and two windows occupy the ground floor left return elevation, with a dormerheaded window breaking through the eaves and a ground floor window at the gable.

Interior

The interior retains most original features. Richly decorated plaster cornices, beams, consoles and compartmentalised ceilings ornament the principal ground floor rooms, with original chimneypieces throughout. The stairs feature carved balusters, with a 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 Pitpointie Farmhouse.

Associated Structures

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, with stone slab shelves visible in the interior. When listed in 1992, this structure was described as having a dilapidated thatch roof.

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

Two widely spaced round-section, ogival-capped gatepiers with adjoining rubble quadrant walls mark the entrance to the farmhouse and steading at the south. Two partly chamfered square-section timber piers with ball finials stand at the west entrance to the farmhouse and steading.

Historical Context

The Dundee and Newtyle Railway, which opened in 1831, originally passed immediately adjacent to Pitpointie Farm but was re-routed through Dronley in 1860. The timber piers at the west entrance may derive from the original railway line, which crossed the public road at approximately this location.

The listing record was updated in 2021 as part of the Thatched Buildings Listing Review.