House Of Gray

The House of Gray is a substantial, early 18th-century country house, likely designed by Alexander McGill between 1714 and 1716. The house is rectangular in plan, with seven bays, and includes flanking stair towers and pavilions. It is constructed of pink coursed rubble stone, grey-green at the east pavilion, originally harled, with ashlar dressings. The roof is of piended slate. Architectural details include a cill course to the basement, a moulded string course to the ground floor, rusticated quoins, margined windows and angles, a band course at the wallhead to the pavilions and rear stair towers, and a corniced eaves course to the main building. Originally, 12-pane sash windows were used, with taller windows on the principal floor, and 6-pane windows to the basement. The chimney stacks have been rebuilt with corniced, harled and channelled ridges.

The south elevation features a slightly advanced and raised three-bay pedimented gable at the center. A doorway is centrally located and accessed by steps, framed by a moulded doorcase and a segmental pediment with decayed ornament. There are windows to the left and right of the doorway. The basement has two windows, and the first floor has three segmental-headed windows with festoons above. The pediment is decorated with a display of arms, flanked by oculi. The main elevation to the left and right has two windows each on the ground and first floors. Recessed stair tower bays are located to the left and right, each containing windows to the basement, ground, and first floor; the ground floor window on the left has been reduced to a doorway leading to a flight of steps, and the basement window has been blocked. Advanced pavilions flank the left and right sides of the main block, each with four windows to the basement floor and ground floor. Some basement windows are blocked. The returns of the pavilions have one window and one blocked window to the ground floor.

The east elevation (pavilion) has a basement door and two ground floor windows. The west elevation (pavilion) includes an arrow slit ventilator and a bipartite window to the basement, and two ground floor windows.

The north elevation mirrors the south elevation, with a central pedimented bay and flanking bays. There are two windows to the basement, ground, and first floor on the returns to the left and right. The stair towers are recessed. A later linking section was added at the first floor to the right. The pavilions are further recessed and mirror each other, with the left pavilion consisting of four bays and an ogival-roofed hexagonal stair tower as its second bay from the right; the tower to the left is round and corbelled to hexagonal at the basement. The pavilion to the right has undergone alterations to its ground floor. Numerous other window and door alterations have occurred throughout the building.

The interior of the house has been totally reconstructed.