The Bughties, 76 Camphill Road, Broughty Ferry, Dundee

The Bughties, 76 Camphill Road, Broughty Ferry, Dundee

A large half-timbered gabled villa designed by John Murray Robertson and dated 1882, with a billiard room wing added in 1895. The building is a substantial 2-storey and attic main block with single storey and attic elements to the east, arranged on an irregular plan.

The exterior is constructed of stugged snecked masonry with long and short quoins and margined dressings, combined with painted timber and plaster. Brick stacks rise throughout, and the roof is covered in plain red tile. The main block features a base course, lintel, cill and foliate eaves course with bracketed eaves. Half-timbered gables have panelled bargeboards. Windows are sash and case with single pane at the bottom sash and multi-pane at the top. The ground floor of the main block includes a central window with diamond traceried top sash, and canted windows feature foliate capitals. Brick stacks are elongated, panelled, coped and oversailing.

The north elevation displays a wide 3-bay main block on the right with a slightly advanced central gable containing a half-timbered and glazed gabled porch. An ogival window sits to the left. An off-centre pripartite mullioned and transomed stair window with stained glass is positioned above, with a single window to the right. The gable is supported on corbels decorated with fleur-de-lis and Tudor rose motifs and contains four closely grouped windows. A single bay to the left has two windows at ground floor and a bipartite window at first floor, with a later box dormer above. A bay to the right has bipartites at both ground and first floor levels. A platform roof covers this section, with a set-back wallhead stack at the east gable and a roof stack to the right of the central gable. A 2-bay single storey and attic service block sits to the left, with an advanced bay on the right featuring a ground floor canted window and a jettied gable with patterned half-timbering and a bipartite window. To the left at ground floor is a window and small ogival window, with a dormer breaking the eaves.

The south elevation comprises a 3-bay symmetrical main block on the left. The central bay has steps leading to a wide advanced tripartite window with modern glazed doors at the centre, flanked by a verandah with turned timber columns and upper screen work. Two windows occupy the first floor, above which sits a corbelled gable with windows matching those of the north elevation but with a different timber pattern and single pane modern windows. Full-height wide canted windows with facetted roofs and terracotta finials occupy the flanking bays. Two roof stacks rise from this section. A later box dormer and truncated stone buttress stack appear at the right return. An unsightly modern steel ramp extends across the ground floor to a single storey link with an advanced 2-bayed billiard room wing to the right, which features two canted windows (an oriel at the left) with a strapwork frieze and projecting gables set within deep eaves.

The east elevation is plain, with an advanced single storey wing on the left topped by a wallhead stack on a shouldered masonry base. The service block to the right has a gable at the left and a wallhead stack at the right.

The west elevation features an off-centre canted window with a tripartite window at first floor and a small tripartite window above at gable level, with single windows at ground and first floor to the left.

The interior contains a mosaic tiled floor at the entrance beneath an elliptical arch with sculpted sunflower design corbels and bead moulding. The drawing room has painted full-height panelling with acanthus moulding and a plaster ceiling decorated with a bay leaf garland design with round floral wreaths at the corners; the chimneypiece has been removed. The study features a half-glazed bookcase on the west wall, a timber dentilled frieze, and a chimneypiece with a strapwork motif. The dining room is finished with full-height dark wood panelling with moulding and a plain moulded chimneypiece, topped by a plaster ceiling with an oval decoration of fruit and foliate design. The billiard room has a panelled dado with a Jacobean style chimneypiece and overmantle, and a comb ceiling with a painted forest scene frieze.

The property is enclosed by a wall to Camphill Road on the north with circular-section conical-capped gatepiers, and by a wall to Bughties Road on the south.