Killean House

Killean House is a large asymmetrical mansion dating from the 1870s, with later additions in 1907. The original design was by John Burnet Snr in 1876, revised by John James Burnet around 1877-78, and the house was completed in the early 1880s. It incorporates elements of French, English, and Scottish late Gothic and Early Renaissance styles. The building is arranged around a two- and three-storey main block with lower wings, forming an L-plan forecourt facing east and a service court to the south. It is constructed from coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, featuring a battered basecourse and crowstepped gables with segmentally pedimented finials on the main block. The roofs are slate-covered, with substantial stacks distinguished by V-chamfered flues and deep, battered copes.

The east (entrance) elevation features a crenellated two-bay entrance tower with entasis, a crenellated parapet, and a tall, French-style roof. An open timber porch with baluster columns on a stone base stands beneath. Two mullioned and transomed windows are positioned above the porch. A hall-staircase elevation is to the left, with irregular window placement and a monogrammed roundel. A broad, circular angle tower rises with a tall conical roof. A single-storey service wing extends at a right angle to the southeast, culminating in a taller pavilion with a pyramid roof truncated by a louvered ventilator superstructure.

The north elevation displays a circular angle tower on the left, accented by a simple corbel course at first-floor level. Three windows are arranged at ground floor level, with three pedimented dormerhead windows above. A single-bay link connects to a gabled section, featuring a mullioned and transomed three-light window at ground floor and a two-light window above.

The west (garden) elevation showcases a canted bay of one-three-one lights at ground floor, corbelled to a square shape in two stages at first floor. A three-light first-floor window sits above, alongside a central bay with a two-light window at ground floor and a small light above. This connects to a three-story angle tower with entasis and three-light windows at ground floor facing west and south; two-light windows are on the west and two single lights on the south at first floor. The second floor features three transomed windows on the west and four on the west, the westmost incorporating a bold, machicolation-like balcony pierced with quatrefoils. An elaborately stepped and moulded parapet incorporates waterspouts. A slim angle towerlet rises a storey higher at the southeast, supported by deep curvilinear corbelling, with two- and three-light windows including colonnettes at the top stage. A tall roof is clasped by a chimney. A half-gable links to the lower south wing, featuring one-, two-, and three-light windows, with a dormerhead above the central first-floor window. The west gable of the south wing is situated to the right.

The service court is entered through a segmental archway with a boldly stepped court and a ball finial on the east. The elevations of the court are relatively plain, with chamfered openings and gabled masonry dormerheads. The east gable is flanked by twin towerlets with corbelled top stages and pyramid roofs topped by ball finials.

The interior of the house largely retains its original hall-staircase. The hall features galleries on all sides with convex angles and elegant turned balusters, now painted. The drawing room in the northwest has an imported Jacobethan chimneypiece, while the dining room in the southwest displays an enriched triglyph entablature and consoled chimneypiece. The circular library, located in the northeast tower, is lined with bookcases between the window openings.