Boundary Walls and Gatepiers, Beechwood, 14,16 and 18 Dollar Road, Tillicoultry

Boundary Walls and Gatepiers, Beechwood, 14, 16 and 18 Dollar Road, Tillicoultry

This is a 2-storey, asymmetrical gabled villa designed by Adam Frame of Thomas Frame and Son around 1860. The building has been divided into three houses and sits within large private grounds. It is constructed from squared, snecked and droved sandstone with ashlar dressings. The villa is notable for its elaborately carved timber bargeboards and pendants to the gabled bays of the principal south elevation.

The principal south elevation comprises three irregular bays. The central entrance door features a leaded fanlight deeply recessed within a four-centred arched surround with hood-mould. To the right of centre is an advanced gabled bay with a 2-storey canted window and crenellated parapet, with a blind quatrefoil in the gable head. To the left of centre is a shallow advanced, chamfered and gabled bay with a bipartite window at ground floor. Windows across the principal elevation have roll-moulded reveals. A lower 2-storey, 2-bay gabled wing adjoins to the right (west), set back with a wider left bay containing a later door and bipartite window above with decorative hood mould. A late 19th-century single-storey gabled addition extends to the left (east), with a circa 2010 single-storey pitched roof addition to its front.

The west elevation comprises a 3-bay gable to the right, with a bipartite window at first-floor level within the gable flanked by narrow round-arched windows, and a late 19th-century 4-bay range to the left with a central gable breaking the wall head. An entrance door with square and margin-paned fanlight is present.

Windows are predominantly flat-arched, with some four-centred arched windows featuring Y-tracery glazing. Timber sash and case windows display a variety of glazing patterns; those with four-centred arches include Y-tracery astragals to their upper sashes. An exposed rafter end extends to the gabled bays of the side and rear elevations. One pointed timber finial remains on the centre gabled bay; other finials have been lost. Roofs are of slate with stepped and corniced end stacks and octagonal flues.

The interiors, observed in 2014, include fine plasterwork ceilings throughout. No. 18 is characterised by intricate plaster ceilings and timber fixtures. The entrance hall features timber panelling to the walls with a dentilled cornice, incorporating a marble and timber mantelpiece. Four-centred arches on corbels open off the hallway. A large round arched opening with timber detailing leads to a staircase with iron balustrade and chamfered newel posts bearing a blind quatrefoil motif. The Drawing Room contains a mantelpiece with figurative and floral decoration and a compartmented ceiling with quatrefoil motif. The Dining Room has a classical mantelpiece and compartmented ceiling incorporating acanthus and floral motifs with a ceiling rose. A coombed ceiling with opaque square skylight covers the staircase. Decorative cornicing in a variety of motifs adorns the principal rooms. First-floor rooms feature corbelled and vaulted ceilings, with the southeast corner room displaying an elaborate compartmentalised ceiling. No. 14 retains a tiled floor to the entrance hall, moulded cornicing, and window shutters in some rooms.

The boundary walls and gatepiers comprise rubble boundary walls to the south, heightened around 2005, with roll-moulded ashlar copes and chamfered and square-plan gatepiers with moulded caps. Brick boundary walls run along the west, north and east sides. Square gatepiers with ball finials are set into the north wall to the east.