Capenoch House

Capenoch House is a Scots Baronial mansion house built between 1847 and 1868 by the architect David Bryce. It incorporates an earlier house dating to around 1780, which was originally a square, three-bay structure, later encased and extended. Further, more elaborate additions were made to the north in 1855, and a mullioned conservatory was added to the west between 1855 and 1856. A low service court to the northwest was built in 1855, with further extensions in 1868. The house is mostly two storeys high, with raised basements and attics.

The exterior is constructed of stugged pink ashlar, with polished dressings, corbelling, crow-stepped gables, pedimented dormer heads, bartizans, and coped stacks. Windows are square-headed, single- and mullioned plate-glass sash windows. The additions of 1847/8 include a three-bay south elevation, canted window to the left (with steps added in 1855), corbelled to a square above and gabled. A porch was added to the east elevation of the original house, and a turret was incorporated into the re-entrant angle, corbelled to a square at the upper level. A further baronial wing, modeled on a tower house, was added in 1854, featuring bartizans and a corbelled parapet beneath the east gable, with two north-facing doors, an east-facing oriel, a stepped corbel table, and a corbelled gable at the west end of the north wall. Bartizans (one square, one round) are set into the west elevation, flanking the original house. Slate roofs are used throughout, with curved or pyramidal shapes and finials over the bartizans. The conservatory extends four gabled bays to the west, featuring angle buttresses and finials.

Inside, the main library is within the earlier building and features fitted bookshelves and panelling to deeply-set reveals. A smaller library room housed the ornithological library of Sir Hugh Gladstone. A staircase and gallery have turned wooden balusters and pendants, and there are timber and marble chimneypieces, as well as decorative ceiling plasterwork. Balustrades and steps lead to terraces on the east, west, and south sides of the house.

The house has historical connections to the Kirkpatricks of Capenoch, discussed in a 1929 article in 'TDGNHAS'. The 1847 additions were commissioned for James Grierson, with subsequent additions for T.S. Gladstone.