Saltoun Hall

Saltoun Hall is a Tudor mansion built between 1818 and 1825 by William Burn, incorporating a 15th-century tower house to the west and a two-story, four-bay addition from 1769 to 1775. Robert Burn made alterations in 1803, and the building was converted into flats between 1967 and 1971 by Robin Jell. The hall sits on high ground near Birns Water, north of West Saltoun.

The main block is three stories and has a basement, with a taller rectangular tower and a two-story, basement wing to the east. It is constructed of pink sandstone ashlar with a base course, hoodmolds, chamfered and cavetto reveals, and a crenellated parapet. Stone mullions are present, and some rendered and lined repairs are visible on the south and west sides.

The main block is roughly square, arranged around the tower. The north elevation has seven bays, with five recessed bays at the center linked to full-height square pavilions by a single-story crenellated loggia. The loggia features set-off buttresses dividing three four-centered archways, flanked by narrow windows. A four-centered doorway is centrally positioned, flanked by narrow windows, with four-centered, blinded openings at each end of the loggia. The interior of the doorway has a ribbed stone vault with ornately carved bosses and capitals. Bipartite windows are found in the pavilions on the ground and first floors, with smaller single windows on the second floor.

The south elevation has six bays. The southwest pair of bays are set at an obtuse angle, following the slope down to Birns Water. Four bays to the right, dating from 1769 to 1776, include a rectangular projecting entrance bay, resembling a tower, which breaks the main parapet with a further crenellated parapet. Wrought-iron railings lead to steps with a deeply graded reveal beneath a four-centered doorway. Ground floor bays incorporate windows, with smaller windows on the first and second floors; four 2nd floor bays in the center and right have four-centered arches. Corbelled bartizans are present at the second floor, with glazed arrow slits and parapets.

The west elevation displays seven irregular bays, largely from the 15th century, aligned at a splayed angle and featuring a circular tower off-center to the right with two blinded windows.

The east wing, designed by William Burn, has a five-bay north elevation with the outer left bay as a square pavilion. Tripartite and traceried windows are found on the ground floor, while four-centered bipartites are on the first floor (with tripartite windows in the pavilion). A three-stage circular tower is set into the re-entrant angle with the main block. A crenellated porte-cochere is on the east elevation, supported by polygonal piers and four-centered archways and windows, with a circular, crenellated stair tower to the left of the entrance. The south elevation features seven bays, with three bays to the left of the center canted. Windows are present on each floor in each bay, some four-centered. Sash and case windows have small- and horizontal-pane glazing, and decorative cans have been retained.

The interior, largely designed by William Burn in a Gothic style, includes a particularly fine saloon, rectangular in plan with side galleries over four-centered archways which lead to passages having rib vaulted soffits. Ribbed spandrels are beneath a circular whispering gallery and octagonal rotunda. The ceiling is ornate. A panelled library features a marble chimneypiece and a ribbed ceiling.

Crenellated ashlar parapets with polygonal piers support a terrace at the east side, overlooking Birns Water. Enclosing the property, a circular tradesman's bay with cast-iron railings is situated to the east of the house, open to the north.