Carlowrie

Carlowrie is a Scots Baronial terraced mansion designed by David Rhind in 1852. The house is two storeys with an attic breaking through the eaves line and a basement, with a service wing extending to the north. It has an asymmetrical rectangular plan and sits on a broad terrace surrounded by a balustrade, with entrances on the west and south sides. The building is constructed of squared and snecked honey-coloured sandstone with ashlar dressings, string courses, and hoodmoulds throughout.

South (Main) Elevation

The south elevation has a horizontal emphasis broken by a round three-stage entrance tower at the centre. The tower door sits centrally with a moulded architrave. Above the lintel is a square plaque bearing an armorial escutcheon and feather carving. The string course rises to form an architrave for the first floor window, above which are the initials TH (for Thomas Hutchinson) and the date 1852. A blind arrowslit opening appears on the east side of the tower. At the third stage, narrow windows face east and west. The tower is crowned by a platform with a heavy arcaded ashlar balustrade divided by pilasters on deep corbelling, with cable moulding above the corbelling and forming the handrail.

A round stair turret occupies the left re-entrant angle, corbelled above ground with roll and cable moulding, providing access to the third stage and platform. The turret has two stages, the upper one jettied on a corbel course, with arrowslit windows. It is topped by a candle-snuffer roof on deep corbelling. A slender round tower is set deep in the right re-entrant angle, terminating just below the first floor string course, with two blind narrow arrowslits.

Two windows flank the entrance tower on each side at ground level; the window to the right has six panes with stone mullions. Two windows to the right at first floor level have cornices supported by tiny scrolls. A window sits to the left of the tower at first floor level. Above is a corbelled parapet. At the centre is a pedimented, diminutive turret with roll and cable moulding below the corbel table line, gablet coping, scrolled skews, a finial, and a small central window. A rooflight sits to the right.

A taller attic storey rises to the right, with a gabled dormer window at the centre featuring an arrowslit in the gablehead and a ball finial. Lower gabled ashlar dormers sit to the right and left, with slender round-headed arrowslits at the centre. The left dormer has a thistle finial, the right a ball finial. All three dormers have minute crowstepped gables. A bartizan on roll-moulded corbelling occupies the right corner, with a small central window. The corner features a billetted eaves cornice, candle-snuffer roof, and finial.

North (Rear) Elevation

The north elevation is crowstepped M-gabled with apex stacks. The recessed north return of the east elevation sits to the left, with a single-storey office range to the right. Three regularly-spaced barred windows appear at basement level. At ground level there is a blind lancet to the outer left and an eight-pane sash to the outer right. A large tripartite stair window with stone mullions and transoms occupies the centre between the gables, with coloured border glazing. The gablehead and chimney breast to the left are jettied on roll-moulded corbelling. A blind arrowslit sits to the outer left, with a blind lancet to the outer right.

East Elevation

The east elevation is lopsided M-gabled with a raised basement, band course, and barred windows at basement level. A glazed porch marks the outer left entrance, with a stone perron stair with ashlar coping leading up to the entrance. A door to the basement sits at the north return of the stair. A six-pane sash appears to the outer right, with a string course above. A round turret on roll and cable-moulded corbelling rises at the centre between first floor windows, continuing up between the gables. It has arrowslit windows, a corbelled eaves cornice, and a candle-snuffer roof. Shaped string courses run to the left and right, the right one deeply moulded, with the string course continuing along the north return. A recessed bay to the outer right contains a small barred basement window, a central eight-pane sash, and a dormerhead window at first floor level.

West Elevation

The west elevation is asymmetrical, with three bays of the main terraced block, a lower three-bay range to the left, and a single and attic office block advanced to the left. The three bays of the main block are terminated by a four-stage slender corner tower with a candle-snuffer roof to the left. A door sits below terrace level on the north side of the tower. Windows appear in the outer right bay at ground and first floor levels, with a decoratively jettied gablehead and paired apex stacks. The centre bay has a window at first floor level in an advanced corbelled panel over a tall arrowslit at ground level, breaking through the eaves as an engaged tower with a window and balustrade detailed like the entrance tower.

The lower wing to the left has a projecting gable off-centre to the right. This is a crowstepped aproned gable with a blind lancet in the gablehead and a ball finial. A small dormerhead window sits by the re-entrant to the right, with ashlar coping and a fleur-de-lis finial. A dormerhead window appears to the outer left. A still lower service range sits in front of the block, with an advanced crowstepped gable to the outer left topped by a ball finial. Paired windows appear at ground level, with a single window in the gablehead. A barred window sits at ground right, with a pedimented dormerhead above and a thistle finial. The crowstepped gable at the south return has windows to the right and left flanking a central gablehead blind lancet.

A single-storey T-plan office range extends to the north, with crowstepped gables containing blind arrow loops. Barred windows appear at ground level, with dormerheads on the north elevation. Piend louvered ventilation stacks sit on the ridge.

Throughout the house, eight-pane sash and case windows are used. The roof is grey slate with tall coped end stacks and delicate crowstepped gables.

Interior

The interior is impressive, with a mosaic floor in the round tower entrance. A narrow vestibule leads to a central saloon galleried at first floor level, with a coved structural ceiling and top-lighting. A grand staircase features twisted iron balusters. All main ground floor rooms have structural ceilings with pendants and plain marble chimneypieces.

Terrace

The terrace has a squared and snecked retaining wall with ashlar coping, several flights of ashlar steps, and a balustrade throughout.

Garden Walls and Walled Garden

A long rectangular garden is bounded by a wall to the north. The walled garden to the west of the house has a random rubble wall with semi-circular coping. Glasshouses stand on the north side of the garden.

Toolshed Tower

At the south corner, to the southwest of the west elevation, is a squat round tower serving as a toolshed. It is built of squared sandstone on a base course with a battlemented parapet. The door is in the west side of the tower.

Lodge

The lodge stands to the southwest of the house and dates to 1873, with a later addition to the east. It is a single-storey T-plan (originally L-plan) gabled block. The construction is stugged, squared and snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings, a base course, and chamfered arrises. Blind arrowslit lancets appear in the gableheads, with stugged quoins.

The south elevation has an entrance in the south return of the west projecting gable, with a plain modern door and a two-pane letterbox fanlight. An advanced gable sits to the right, with a window at ground level at the centre, a blind lancet above, and an escutcheon in the gablehead. A pedestal to the apex thistle finial is inscribed 1873.

The north elevation is asymmetrical, with a one-bay older block to the west and a three-bay rendered addition to the east. A gently bowed window sits to the left of the stack, under a piend slated roof with billet moulding under the eaves. The window has a lugged and moulded architrave with a marriage lintel inscribed "D.M.-I.M. BLISSIT BE GOD IN ALL HIS GIFTIS 1611". The rendered block to the left has a door at the centre with flanking windows.

The lodge has six-pane sash and case windows, with four-pane sash and case windows for the later addition. The roof is grey slate with a rooflight on the south slope of the west projection. Square coped stacks sit on the former end gable to the east, with one having droved arrises.

Gatepiers of stugged construction with swept-up ashlar caps for thistle finials stand at the entrance.

Stables

The stables stand to the west of the house beyond the garden wall. Dating to circa the 1870s, they form a single-storey L-plan stable range with hayloft attic. The construction is stugged, squared and snecked sandstone, with margined windows and doors and chamfered reveals.

The west elevation has a broad advanced gabled wing to the left, with two bays at ground floor level—a barred window to the right and a blocked window to the left. A round-headed hayloft opening in the gablehead has a boarded door and remains of a hoist mechanism to the left. A door sits on the south return. The long range to the right has a barred window at ground left, with a crowstepped gable dormer with thistle finial above. A two-leaf coach door sits to the right.

The south and north gables each have a barred window at ground level and a round-headed hayloft door at upper level.

The stables have 12-pane sash and case windows, a grey slate roof with crowstepped gables and finials, and a square coped sandstone ridge stack.

Cottage

The cottage stands immediately northwest of the stables and dates to circa the 1870s. It is built of stugged, squared and snecked sandstone with ashlar margined windows and chamfered reveals. It has a rectangular plan with an entrance wing to the south.

The south elevation is gabled with a window at the centre at ground level and a lancet in the gablehead. A door sits in the east return with a four-panelled design and two-pane letterbox fanlight, with a window to the right.

The east elevation is gabled with a lower lean-to bay to the right. A window sits at the centre of the gable, with a door in the lean-to bay to the right.

The north elevation has a lean-to bay against the gable, with a window off-centre to the right.

The cottage has 12-pane sash and case windows, a grey slate roof with crowstepped gables, and square coped end stacks to the north and west.