Lennoxlove

Lennoxlove is a remarkable and complicated mansion of mixed date. The building began as a 15th-century, four-storey tower house in L-plan with a barmkin, which was enlarged into a mansion house during the 17th century. The main later alterations date to the early 19th century and to 1912–14, when the architect Robert Lorimer undertook significant work.

The original tower house is L-plan with long sides facing south and west. It is built of generally random rubble with squared quoins and margins of variable finish, some undressed and some moulded; it was probably originally harled. A parapet with continuous rope and fillet corbelling encloses an L-shaped penthouse and a joining cap-house at the south-west. Gargoyles drain the parapet walk, and open bartisans occupy the corners. The openings are numerous, irregular and varied, including several tiny windows, one very tall window to the south, and a gable-headed dormer breaking the penthouse eaves. The roof is laid in graded stone slabs with skews, crowstepped to the penthouse. The stacks are irregular and varied.

The east wing is complicated and altered. It was originally of two storeys plus dormers (earlier 17th century, with alterations in the early 19th century) but is now essentially three storeys with a four-storey tower at the south-east corner and a two-storey bay at the north-east end. It is built of random sandstone rubble with varied dressings. There is a string course at the first floor and at the third (tower only), topped by a plain parapet with false machicolations. The south elevation features a recessed and symmetrical three-bay block with a central doorway (added by Lorimer in 1912) with moulded architrave topped by a heraldic crest; the windows are regular and tall to the first floor, with a central opening that is bipartite. The south-west tower has regular windows on all four storeys to the east, but on the south has a bipartite window to the first floor and slit windows to the third; a tall narrow stairtower in the west return has slit windows. The central section of the east elevation (three bays) has advanced end bays, the southernmost only to first-floor level, with large tripartite and bipartite windows; the north end bay (two storeys) has a bipartite window to the ground floor.

The east wing's north elevation to the courtyard is very varied, irregular, and mostly plain. The three-storey elevations were probably originally harled, with raised margins to the windows including an ocular stairlight. To the north, abutting the east wing, a two-storey M-roofed unit adjoins a "gatehouse" (both early 19th century), adjoining a courtyard arch (from the original 15th-century barmkin) in a symmetrical gable with arched first-floor windows. An arched doorway to the courtyard is on the inner side of the gatehouse.

The fenestration throughout the tower and east wing is varied, mostly small-paned timber sash and case windows, some with two panes and leaded glass, some tiny and fixed. The roofs are a mixture of piended, skewed and crowstepped forms in graded grey slate. The stacks are numerous, some of ashlar and some of rubble, with plain cans.

The north-west range, dating to circa 1676 and possibly designed by Sir William Bruce, is a two-storey, five-bay block in classical style, adjoining a long single-storey block to the east on the north side of the courtyard. The main block is built in random sandstone rubble with rusticated quoins and rybats. It has a base course, a double band course at first-floor level, an eaves course and a machicolated cornice. The south elevation is symmetrical with five windows to each floor, those on the ground floor having cornice mouldings. The west elevation is similar, with two bays. The north elevation is less regular, with a central tripartite window on both floors, flanked on the ground by two doorways and on the first floor by bipartite windows. The outer bays have single windows except for a large arched doorway in the westmost bay at ground level. The adjoining single-storey block is built in random rubble with roughly-dressed margins, a central door partly glazed, and eight flanking windows in an irregular pattern.

The windows are timber sash and case with 16 and 12-pane glazing. The roofs are in graded grey slate, piended to the main block with a single ashlar stack, cavetto coping and plain cans; there is one gable to the single-storey block with skews, two short stacks, and the ridge is partially laid in stone "tiles".

The old coach house dates to circa 1676 and was possibly designed by Sir William Bruce. It is a two-bay pavilion in the identical classical style to the north-west range. A round corner tower was added to the north-east corner in 1914 by Sydney Mitchell and Wilson. The west elevation retains the double arch of the coach-house entrance, infilled by later ashlar to leave two windows with a single window above to the first floor. The south elevation has two windows to the ground floor and one to the first floor. The north elevation has a single window to the first floor, a door and a window to the ground floor with an open modern lean-to carport. The corner tower has a plain boarded door with one window to the first floor.

The windows are timber sash and case with 16 and 12-pane glazing. The roof is in graded grey slate, pyramidal but ogee to the tower, with one ashlar stack with cavetto cope and plain cans.

The north range, added in 1914 by Sydney Mitchell and Wilson, is a single-storey range in snecked sandstone rubble with smooth ashlar dressings. The south elevation has eight bays: the two central windows are flanked by two plain boarded doors with plain fanlights, which are flanked in turn by two arched windows at the west end and two arched garage doorways at the east end. A kennel compound adjoins the east end. The rear (north) elevation has three distinctive swept, elliptical dormer-style rooflights.

The windows are timber sash and case with small panes to the south, and there are two skylights to the south; the rear "dormers" are small-paned and inward opening. The roof is piended in graded grey slates with a stone ridge.