Hillside House, Aberdour

Hillside House, Aberdour

Hillside House is a residential building constructed between 1800 and 1810. It is a basement and two-storey, five-bay rectangular-plan house, now in use as a residential school (as of 2002), with an irregular L-plan extension from the 1970s attached to the west. The house features a Doric portico to its principal elevation.

The external walls are constructed of squared, snecked, stugged stone with droved ashlar to the ground floor string course and eaves course. The raised, droved ashlar margins to the arises feature droved rybats, and the raised ashlar window surrounds are consistent throughout. The building is topped with an eaves cornice and low parapet, with a coped pediment to the advanced central section of the south elevation.

The north (entrance) elevation is symmetrical in composition. A single-storey portico forms the centred entrance bay, raised slightly above the rest of the elevation. Two Doric columns with corresponding pilasters support an entablature with a low parapet. Two steps lead to a raised platform that bridges the basement area. The centred door is flanked by a pair of windows, with further windows evenly arranged to slightly recessed bays at ground and first floor levels. These windows have moulded architraves and are topped with console brackets supporting corniced hoodmoulds. Five small windows serve the basement level. The north elevation also features decorative cast-iron fleur de lys railings and a timber panelled door with a four-pane lying-pane letterbox fanlight.

The east elevation is near-symmetrical, with a centred window to an advanced central bay at ground and first floor levels, flanked by shorter slit windows. The outer bays contain centred windows at both levels. A basement door with a flanking slit window to the right is present, alongside a modern rendered extension to the left at the advanced central bay basement level. A service courtyard lies opposite the basement, featuring flagstone ground surface and a rubble retaining wall with render to the south-east section. A droved ashlar opening leads to a service tunnel running to the north-east, which is of rubble construction.

The south elevation is symmetrical with five bays and an advanced pedimented central bay. Three steps lead to a centred door at the advanced bay. A large first-floor stair window is positioned closely above, and both door and window are topped with console brackets supporting corniced hoodmoulds. Flanking pairs of windows are evenly arranged to slightly recessed bays at ground and first floor levels.

The west elevation retains original ground and first-floor windows arranged evenly to the left. The centre and right portions feature the modern 1970s extension, with a blocked long window to the right.

The windows throughout are predominantly twelve-pane timber sash and case windows. The roof is piended with grey slate covering, punctuated by various rooflights. Low, squat corniced stone stacks are positioned to the central platform, with a pair to the east, one to the centre, and one to the west. A modern fire-escape door has been inserted to the roof of the west elevation, with tile-hung cheeks and cast-iron stairs serving the modern extension.

The interior features an entrance vestibule decorated with Minton tiles and a full-height blind niche to the right. A pilastered central doorpiece with entablature marks the transition to the main hall. Large segmental arched openings originally connected the hall to axial corridors running east-west, though these are now blocked by modern doors. The principal rooms to the north-east and south-east contain decorative plasterwork to their ceilings. The south-east room retains an original grey marble fireplace flanked by blocked niches.

A pedestrian gate to the south boundary wall features a bold, squat doorpiece. The timber door is modern, set within an ashlar stone surround with an inserted corniced capital. Slightly advanced square pillars topped with coping and a string course frame the opening.