Terrace, Blairvadach, Shore Road, Shandon

Terrace, Blairvadach, Shore Road, Shandon

This is a substantial Scots Baronial house designed by J T Rochead around 1850. It is a two-storey building with attic, built to a rectangular plan, and features a square keep. The walls are constructed of stugged, squared and snecked, honey-coloured sandstone with ashlar margins and dressings. The principal architectural details include stop-chamfered reveals, a base course, string course, triangular pedimented dormerheads, and crowstepped gables.

The south-east elevation is asymmetrical, with a two-bay entrance block advanced to the left and a three-bay main body recessed behind it. To the outer right sits a recessed kitchen area. The porch entrance to the outer left is slightly advanced with rounded corners. The porch is adorned with annulets decorating colonettes that support a broken pediment on heavy brackets and pendant corbels. A rope-moulded string course runs between the brackets. Roll-moulding with ribbon-lacing surrounds the door and doorpiece, and gun-loop openings flank the door. A pedimented square panel framed by colonettes breaks through the open pediment. The doorway is shoulder-arched with a two-leaf wooden door fitted with cast-iron hinges. To the right is a two-storey, crowstepped gabled block with a rounded corner corbelled to square above a string course. A ground-floor window with rope moulding and string course forms a hoodmould, with roll-moulded string course continuing along the right return. A narrow blind window sits at first floor, with an arrowslit at the gablehead. A tall window on the right return has a pedimented dormerheaded window above and a narrow lancet to the outer right. The main house is recessed with a pepperpot bartizan to the outer left, a pedimented dormerheaded window at the penultimate bay to the left, and a window at first floor left. A broad gabled bay occupies the outer right with an ashlar, transomed and mullioned window at ground floor and a door at first floor. A lower battlemented block, raised to a pediment at centre, stands to the outer right with windows at ground and first floor. A modern fire escape sits in front of the two outer right bays. A modern, flat-roofed, cement-rendered boiler-house has been built in the re-entrant angle.

The south-west elevation comprises four asymmetrical bays with the left return of the porch to the outer right. A rope-moulded string course steps to form hoodmoulds and ends with a knot label stop, uniting the porch with the three right bays. A three-storey keep with balustraded parapet occupies the outer left, featuring heavy machicolation and curved corners corbelled to square above the first floor. A two-storey canted bay window sits against the south-west elevation of the keep, with a battered base and cast-iron strapwork window guard supported on decorative consoles below the first floor window. A modillion cornice and attic window of the keep sit above. Two lower bays to the right have pedimented dormerheaded windows with floral and thistle finials, and a tripartite window at ground with a narrow window to the ground right. A taller, crowstepped gabled bay stands to the right with flanking bartizans, fish-scale slate roof, and lead finials. The window at the centre of the gablehead is united with the bartizans by a hoodmould. A corbelled, bowed oriel at first floor has a window at ground below. The left return of the porch to the outer right is advanced beyond the wall-plane, with a battlemented parapet stepped for a pediment at centre. A tall window occupies the centre, with an arrowloop to the left.

The north-west elevation is five asymmetrical bays, with the keep to the outer right, a link-block at the penultimate bay to the right, and a three-bay wing to the left. A canted oriel at the centre first floor is corbelled from a chamfered centre shaft at ground, with flanking windows at ground and a single window at the third stage of the tower. A lower link-bay to the left has a dormerheaded window at first floor, and unsympathetic modern building sits at ground. A circular stair tower rises behind the bay abutting the south-east corner of the keep, topped with a ribbed ogival lead dome and ball finial, with blind upper windows and string course. A taller three-bay block sits to the outer left. A broad, crowstepped gable to the outer left has a tripartite window at principal floor and a loop-traceried rose window at gablehead with hoodmould. Two bays to the left have bargeboarded dormers, a door to the left, and a tripartite window to the right at principal floor. The ground floor has been altered, and a modern fire escape runs from higher ground at left along principal floor level.

The north-east (rear) elevation is asymmetrical, with a two-bay main block of the house and a wing extending to the outer right. A single-storey service wing occupies the entire re-entrant angle, and modern additions have been built onto the north-east end of the wing. A broad, tall crowstepped gable of the main house to the outer left has windows symmetrically disposed at first and second floors with an apex stack. A lower block to the right features a round-headed stair window with a gable over to the right of centre. The ashlar reticulated tracery is protected by secondary glazing. A three-bay asymmetrical return of the wing extends to the right. A broad crowstepped gable occupies the outer right with a tripartite window at first floor and a loop-traceried rose window at gablehead. A modern square stack rising from the flat-roofed boiler-house at ground obscures the outer right of the gable. A bay to the left has a bargeboarded dormer at centre, with windows at ground and first floor to the right. An advanced, crowstepped gabled bay to the left abuts the main body of the house, and a flat-roofed block of the kitchen wing extends to the south-east. A window sits at first floor with a small window at gablehead. The north-east elevation of the wing has a shouldered wallhead stack at centre and a modern door to the left with fire escape. The wall of the service block at the re-entrant angle is battlemented at the outer left, with a half-piend roofed addition advanced to the outer left.

Windows throughout are a mixture of plate glass and horizontal-pane sash and case windows, though some modern glazing is present. The roof is of grey slate with crowstepped gables and shaped skewputts. Broad, coped wallhead stacks with circular cans top the walls.

The interior features predominantly Jacobean decoration. The entrance hall is elaborately panelled with a panelled ceiling and carved arched hall-screen. A delicately detailed Jacobethan chimney-piece sits within. The stair is of plain oak with a vaulted ceiling and hexagonal, geometric, leaded panes to a four-light Gothic traceried stair window.

A terrace wall of ashlar stands to the south-west of the house, topped with a squat, bulbous urn balustrade with saddle-back coping. Stone steps descend to the garden off-centre to the right through the terrace. A squat, hexagonal, open watch-tower stands at the north-west end of the wall, with a door at the south-east side flanked by gun-slits and battered coping.

A laundry building located to the rear north-east of the house is a single-storey and attic, gabled, rectangular-plan block of cement-rendered construction en-suite with a circular stair tower at the south-east. Features include a base course, crowstepped gabled dormerheads, and a tower with tapering cill arrowslits and eaves moulding. The north-east elevation has two asymmetrical bays with dormerheaded windows symmetrically disposed; a window and door to the left and two windows to the outer right at ground. Rubble is exposed showing a metal beam above the windows with a relieving arch. The south-east elevation has a gable with a circular two-stage tower to the left with an advanced wallhead at centre. The south-west elevation has two bays with the stair tower to the right, and a tall, coped and harled wall encloses an area forming a small court, raised as a half crowstepped gable at the outer right. Stone steps lead to a door at first floor at the tower, with a moulded string course stepped as hoodmould over the top arrowslit. Eight-pane sash and case windows are present, with only one remaining original; the rest are replacement or blocked. The roof is of grey slate with wallhead and apex stack.

An outbuilding to the north-north-east of the house is a single-storey, long rectangular-plan block of brick with cement render, polished chamfered sandstone margins, and four bays. It features a segmental-headed arch, window and door to the right, and window to the left. Windows are blocked, and the roof is of grey slate with ventilators.