Lodge House, Newbigging

Lodge House, Newbigging

Dated 1825, with pavilions added circa 1830, this is a 2-storey, 3-bay laird's house of significant architectural quality. Single-storey recessed piended pavilions and a lean-to addition occupy the rear. The building is harled with painted and dressed margins, quoin strips, base band and eaves courses, and features a cavetto eaves cornice with blocking course.

The symmetrical south elevation, which forms the entrance front, is approached by a flight of 12 scale-and-platt steps leading to a deep-set panelled centre door. The door is framed within a pilastered doorcase and topped by a diamond-patterned fanlight, cornice and blocking course. A band course bears an inscribed date and a small decorative lamp bracket (possibly gas-fired) is mounted above. Windows occupy the flanking bays and pavilions, with regular windows at first-floor level. Small modern rooflights sit to the right and left.

The north elevation displays a dominant lean-to extension to the centre and right, which contains 4 windows. A deep-set panelled door with window sits on the return to the left, with a further window to the outer left. Three regular bays occupy the first floor. The east elevation has a single-storey piended wing to the centre, set clear of the window above, with an adjoining projecting chimney breast to the right. A smaller lean-to porch with a door facing north extends to the outer right, and a window sits to the left at ground level. The west elevation mirrors this arrangement, with a single-storey piended wing to the centre and windows to right and left at ground level. An extension to the outer left was undergoing repair in 1994 and shows a blocked former door.

The windows throughout are predominantly of 12-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case frames. Ground-floor windows on the north, west and west wing sides feature 6-pane upper sashes with plate glass lower sashes; all other ground-floor windows match this arrangement. The roof is covered in graded grey slates with coped ashlar skews. Gablehead stacks have polygonal cans.

The interior retains considerable quality. An entrance vestibule features an inner door with etched glass panel and glazed fanlight with decorative astragals, echoing the outer door's design. A decorative cast-iron baluster supports a wooden handrail. Timber fireplaces feature cast-iron inserts. Decorative plasterwork includes cornicing, a ceiling rose, and dado-height timber panelling.

The property is bounded by a low saddleback-coped ashlar terrace wall with small flat-coped piers flanking the entrance steps. These are fitted with decorative cast-iron railings. Extensive coped rubble boundary walls feature pyramid-capped ashlar gatepiers and decorative cast-iron gates.

A separate Lodge House adjoins a gatepier to the south-east of the main property. This is a single-storey, 3-bay piend-roofed structure with a flat-roofed dry-dash extension to the west. It is harled with architraved windows and chamfered arrises. The entrance to the east is accessed by 5 steps and comprises a centre bipartite door with plate glass fanlight; windows occupy the flanking bays, with windows also serving the north and south elevations. A centre ashlar-coped brick stack with polygonal can rises through the roof.

Historically, Newbigging farm, harbour and limestone quarry were owned by the Carron Company. The New Statistical Account of 1836 records Newbigging, together with Colinswell and Grange, as residences of Messrs Young of the Grange Distillery. The nearby Newbigging Dovecot is listed separately.