Nunraw House

Nunraw House is a substantial baronial mansion built by the architects Brown and Wardrop in 1863–4, incorporating a mid to late 15th century keep at its south-east corner. The building imitates the form of an earlier late 16th century Z-plan castle, now only partially visible in the ground plan. A late 19th century addition exists, along with a Georgian stable court to the east. The keep is built of red sandstone rubble, while the later work is rendered ashlar.

The original 15th century tower, which stands at the south-east corner, is of square plan with a cap house. It has irregular windows inserted to the east (a later alteration), an arrow slit to the north, and billetting to the parapet walk with rope moulding below at the angles and rainwater spouts. A service court adjoins to the south at ground level.

The north elevation is dominated by a squat porte cochere added in the 1880s, adjoined to a 19th century reproduction of the earlier keep. This features round-arched entrances on the north, east and west sides of the porch, with base and string courses, parapet raised and corbelled at the angles, and heraldic carvings above the archways. A further 19th century tower stands at right angles, recessed with a round stair tower set in the re-entrant angle. Between the earliest keep and the 19th century work to the west stands a two-storey bay with a canted oriel window. Both towers have cap houses and the stair tower has a conical roof.

The west elevation contains a north-west tower with a recessed bay adjoined to its right, and a slightly advanced gabled bay further right, linking to a slightly lower south-west tower with its own cap house and round stair tower in a re-entrant angle. A corbelled canted balcony known as "the pulpit" projects from a second-storey window of the south-west tower, probably added later.

The south elevation displays a sturdy consoled balustraded balcony on the east return of the south-west tower, with a small canopied niche above and a round-arched doorway to the re-entrant angle. Three recessed, irregularly grouped bays run eastward from this point. The tower doorway has a yett grille. A corbelled, gabled lookout turret is clasped to the south-east angle.

The service court is built of rubble masonry and is entered by round archways surmounted by a late 19th century octagonal birdcage cupola with a decorative crown cap. Gun loops appear at intervals in the 19th century work. The roofs are slate, with crowstepped gables and billet-moulded coping to gable end stacks. A pierced ashlar parapet runs along the north front. Windows display a variety of glazing patterns.

Internally, the house retains heavy Victorian decoration and fine oak work of circa 1860, featuring linenfold panelling and geometrically panelled doors. The hall has stone flagging with a timber balustrade at the foot of a stone dog-leg stair. Stone newel stairs occupy the towers. Three notable chimneypieces survive: one with a stone hood, one in marble with Ionic pilasters, and one in timber with composite pilasters, a billeted mantelpiece and ornate cast-iron grate. A barrel vault spans the 15th century tower.

A painted ceiling of exceptional importance dates between 1603 and 1617. Discovered during the 1863 restoration, it is painted in tempera on board and beams, initialled PHC (for Patrick Hepburn and Helen Cockburn). The decoration includes heraldry, monarchal arms, musical instruments and exotic animals, with guilloched ribbons adorning the beams. The work originally had a white ground with red and yellow detailing, now largely lost, though the black line drawing remains. Part of the ceiling has been re-sited in the chapel and part taken to the Museum of Antiquities.

A 17th century sundial survives in the grounds. It is a polyhedron with multiple dials, mounted on a cubic pedestal with an octagonal base. Four faces of the polyhedron have cupped dials, with additional small dials for places including Cairo, Jerusalem and Philadelphia.

The original keep is close in form to Huntingtower in Perthshire and Affleck Castle in Angus. Following the Hepburn family's ownership, the property passed to the Hays, and later to Walter Wingate Gray, a Glasgow merchant, in the late 19th century. The 19th century baronial work may be by the architects Shiells and Thomson, who built the nearby house of Linplum. The painted ceiling bears similar line drawing to that at Sparrow Castle, Cockburnspath.

In 1946, Cistercian monks arrived and established a retreat here while building the new Sancta Maria Abbey to the south-west. The house currently serves as a retreat. A lime tree avenue leads to the abbey. The lodge and dovecot are listed separately. The Old Abbey merits its high grade not only for the painted ceiling but also for the unusual incorporation of small windows in the 19th century design, representing a distinctive treatment of the baronial revival style.