Ardwell House

Ardwell House

A substantial laird's house built around 1720, substantially enlarged and altered over the subsequent centuries. The house is a 2-storey structure with a high basement, arranged in three bays, and originally planned as a U-shape. It is predominantly finished in painted harl, with whinstone and sandstone to the rear elevations.

The building underwent significant additions designed by the architects Brown & Wardrop between 1869 and 1872. Following the later demolition of these additions, the house was repaired by HA Wheeler in 1956, including the reconstruction of the entrance elevation.

The entrance elevation, redesigned by Wheeler in 1956, features a concrete scale-and-platt staircase (known as a perron) with flanking iron lamp standards. This leads to a central segmental-arched doorway with a 2-leaf timber and glass door and fanlight, flanked by single windows. The first floor maintains regular fenestration. At basement level, there are small windows with plaques carved above them: an owl to the outer right (the crest of the MacTaggart family) and a lion to the outer right (the crest of the Stewart family), partially hidden by foliage.

The south elevation is 7 bays in total, grouped as 3 and 4 bays. The 3 bays to the left are additions from the 1869-72 works by Brown & Wardrop, featuring 3 segmental arches at basement level; the central arch contains a timber and glass door, with small-paned windows in the flanking bays. Above this section, a single window at the outer right and a central window form a crowstepped gable with a ball-finial. The 4 bays to the right belong to the original 1720 house; the 2 outer bays to the right form a crowstepped gablehead. All bays have regular fenestration at basement, ground, and first-floor levels, except for a bipartite window at basement to the outer left.

The north elevation comprises 3 bays of the original house, with a courtyard addition of 1869-72 to the outer right. The three bays of the main house include: to the outer left, a single window at basement, a bipartite window at ground floor, and a single window at first floor, forming a gablehead; to the centre and right bays, single windows at all three levels. A descending stepped wall forms the entrance to a courtyard. This courtyard entrance is flanked by square-plan gatepiers with ball-finials; ball-finials also mark the outer corners. A lean-to garage is positioned to the right wall.

The courtyard itself features varied fenestration and doors across its four elevations. The south elevation has single timber doors and a 2-leaf timber door, a small recessed opening, and a 3-light small strip window. The east elevation contains a timber and glass door with a window aligned above at first floor, a narrow window at first floor to the outer left, and windows at ground and first-floor levels to the right, the latter breaking the eaves to form a gable. The north elevation has a lean-to at ground level, timber doors, a narrow small-paned stair window, and various single windows.

Throughout the building, a variety of glazing patterns is evident, including plate glass, 4- and 12-pane timber sash and case windows, and rooflights. The roof is covered in swept grey slate with crowstepped skews, skew-putts, gablehead corniced stacks, and polygonal cans.

The interior retains an 18th-century staircase and plain classical decoration. A caryatid chimneypiece, dating from circa 1870 and originally part of the Brown & Wardrop addition, has been moved and repositioned. The servant's attic contains a box bed, and servant's bells are present.

The entrance is approached via iron lamp standards positioned at the corner-turn of the perron staircase. The north elevation gatepiers are square-plan with ball-finials, as noted above. To the south of the house stands a red sandstone sundial with a polygonal plan and gnomon. Also to the south, within the woodland garden, is an owl statue serving as the MacTaggart family emblem, carved by the sculptor John Rhind in 1871-2. A decorative iron gate to the southeast of the house is notable for its square-plan piers.