Dalmahoy House

Dalmahoy House

A classical country house designed by William Adam in 1725, comprising a 2-storey building with raised basement, double-pile rectangular plan, and a projecting entrance block. The house underwent significant additions and alterations: a service wing and interior remodelling by Alexander Laing in 1787, further works by William Burn in 1830, and additions by Brown and Wardrop in 1851. Twentieth-century additions for hotel use are not included in this listing.

The east (garden) elevation displays the original Adam design of 1725 with a symmetrical 7-bay main block flanked by a lower 3-bay block to the right and a single-storey 11-bay arcaded addition to the north. The projecting 3-bay entrance block at the centre features an elaborate segmental-headed doorpiece (now glazed as a window) with fluted consoles supporting a heraldic cartouche and lions holding armorial escutcheons that interrupt the string course. The door is accessed by a curved stone perron stair with stone and wrought-iron balustrade, with a stone bench beside it. Beneath the stair, an arched area contains a glazed door with an advanced heraldic keystone above, inscribed with the date 1725. Windows are regularly disposed across basement and first-floor levels, with smaller windows at ground level. Two bays advance on either side with symmetrically arranged fenestration. A 3-bay block to the right, probably dating from Burn's 1830 works, features a door at principal-floor level accessed by a forestair with fine wrought-iron railings; this door is 4-panelled with a large 6-pane fanlight. Windows are regularly disposed, with the centre first-floor window blind. Full-height arches at ground level in two bays to the left of the forestair contain windows. The single-storey arcaded block to the right displays 11 glazed and keystoned arches beneath a panelled attic parapet.

The exterior finishes comprise harled rendering on the east front with yellow sandstone ashlar dressings, and coursed rubble sandstone with yellow sandstone dressings on the west front. Both elevations display a projecting base course, deep cornice, balustrade, decorative urns, string courses, and quoins.

The west (entrance) elevation features a 3-bay projecting entrance block built by Burn in 1830, incorporating an octagonal corner tower and a Tudor porte-cochere at the centre ground. The porte-cochere is balustraded in Tudor-Gothic style with 4-centred arch openings, trefoil motifs in the squinches, and an armorial plaque set in the balustrade. The inner entrance consists of a tripartite door with the centre door flanked by side lights. At the principal floor, a segmental-headed window (formerly the main door) is centred, with a cornice above supporting an elaborate coat of arms and a window directly above at first-floor level. Towers to left and right feature blind windows at ground level with mouldings and balustrades matching the garden elevation and facetted conical roofs. A near-symmetrical 2-bay right return displays 2 windows at ground (with that to the right blind), a tripartite window at principal floor, and 2 windows at first-floor level. The recessed main house block to the right has 2 windows at ground level with the right window blind, and blind windows at the centre of principal and first floors. A recessed 2-bay block to the left has outer windows that are blind.

The south elevation displays a near-symmetrical 6-bay block with a coursed ashlar parapet. The basement features taller 12-pane windows at the centre bays flanked by smaller windows, with outer-right windows of 24-pane glazing and outer-left windows of 16-pane. Evidence of a blocked opening exists at basement level. Windows are symmetrically disposed at principal and first-floor levels, with a blind window at second-floor outer-right, and a parapet with urns above. The north elevation shows the main block obscured by recent and late 19th-century service extensions. Sash-and-case windows vary in pane configuration: 12-pane for basement, 18-pane for outer bays at principal floor of the main front, 24-pane for windows flanking the perron stair at ground level, and 8-pane for tower windows and some principal-floor windows. The roof is slate with piend and platformed sections, broad corniced ridge stacks, and full roof cans.

The interior features a Gothic entrance hall dating from the 1830s with tripartite entrance screens and roll-moulded cornices. The west room is plain except for a sandstone fireplace with an ogee opening. The main stair, located to the south of centre, leads to a first-floor vestibule with a Roman Doric screen of fluted columns, dentil cornice, and metopes, from which panelled doors open off. The vestibule is united to the upper landing by an oval opening with elaborate wrought-iron balustrade, lit by a cupola, with panelled walls and ceiling and a dentil cornice.