Monkrigg

Monkrigg

This substantial house was designed by William Burn in 1834 and underwent major additions in eccentric Baronial style around 1878, notably the addition of towers. The building is essentially 2-storey and 7-bay in plan, with an irregular composition. It is constructed in snecked or coursed squared sandstone rubble with margins in smooth or droved ashlar.

The south elevation is 7-bay. The three westmost bays are advanced in a double gable flanking the central bay. These gabled bays incorporate a canted, tripartite, flat-roofed bay window to the ground floor and a bipartite window to the first floor, with a slit opening in the gablehead. The central bay contains a single window to the ground floor and a gableheaded window to the first floor which breaks the eaves. The eastmost bay is also advanced and gabled, with a bipartite window to the ground floor but lacking the gablehead slit opening. The intervening three bays are recessed and incorporate a door with latticework porch and two windows to the ground floor, along with three gableheaded windows to the first floor breaking the eaves.

The west elevation is essentially 5-bay. The three southmost bays continue the similar treatment as the south elevation, with a canted, tripartite, flat-roofed bay window to the south and two gableheaded windows above breaking the eaves. Flanking this to the north is an advanced bow with quadripartite windows with smooth ashlar dressings to both ground and first floors, capped by a cornice and conical roof. The two northmost bays form part of the vestibule with tall single and bipartite windows on a single level.

The north elevation is complicated in composition. The westmost bay forms a vestibule with an ornately moulded doorway in neo-Romanesque style, the arch supported on slender columns with ornately carved capitals. The door is two-leafed with each leaf four-panelled and a plain semi-circular fanlight over it. The vestibule is flat-roofed with a balustraded parapet. The next bay forms an imposing square-plan tower rising three tall levels. The ground floor has a tall tripartite window to the north and a bipartite window to the east, all with stone transom. The first floor incorporates a narrow tripartite oriel window to the north and narrow windows with stone transom to the west and east. An enriched and stepped string course above defines a heraldic crest to the north and slit windows to the sides. The upper level incorporates tall tripartite windows with stone transom on each face, with the corners defined by slender columns with ornately carved capitals. It is capped by an ornate cornice and parapet in the style of early 16th-century Winton House at Pencaitland. Two bays further east are recessed and retain the 1834 style with two windows to the ground floor and two gableheaded windows to the first floor breaking the eaves. The eastmost bays recess further still, distinguished by two gableheads, with windows arranged irregularly: three single windows to the ground floor and one single and one bipartite window to the first floor.

The east elevation is distinguished by a round water tower, probably original but recapped during the 1878 works with a machicolated cornice, blocking course and conical roof with fishscale slates. Otherwise the elevation is plain, with a single four-panelled door (upper panels glazed), a single window in both the tower and a small lean-to, and evidence of infilled openings.

Fenestration is mostly timber sash and case, some fixed pane, generally 12-pane in the original openings and 2-pane or single-pane plate glass in the later work. Roofs are finished in graded grey slates with stone ridges, mostly gabled with moulded skews, skewputts and carved finials. Chimney stacks are mostly in squared and snecked rubble with cavetto cope and octagonal cans, although the later work includes two corbelled stacks with ornately moulded copes. Decorative rainwater hoppers are present throughout.