Stable Block, Blair Castle

Stable Block, Blair Castle

A classical stable block built between approximately 1800 and 1830, contemporary with Blair Castle to the west. The building forms an L-plan, with grand pedimented facades facing south towards the Forth and west towards the house. Two subsidiary single-storey wings complete the composition: an eastern wing that creates a U-plan with the main south and west ranges, also dating from the original construction period, and a later brick-built single-storey courtyard wing extending north from the centre of the rear elevation of the west range and linked to the centre of the rear elevation of the east wing, added around the 1930s.

The principal south and west elevations are constructed of light grey ashlar in roughly droved sandstone, with ashlar dressings and quoins used on subsidiary elevations. All ranges are covered with slated piend roofs and axial ridge stacks.

The south range is single-storey with a loft above. Its symmetrical south elevation is tri-partite in composition, with a centre section set back to mirror the tri-partite elevation of the house itself (though inverted, as the house's centre bay is advanced). The set-back centre section features a grand arched entrance pend containing a Diocletian window above two-leaf boarded doors on sliding tracks (the doors were originally hinged). The Diocletian window is glazed with multi-paned timber sash and case windows. Single doors with simple letterbox fanlights flank the entrance at ground floor level, with single square loft openings above. A fireplace and flue are located in the southeast corner of the pend room inside.

The advanced bays flanking the centre section are symmetrical, each containing a single 12-pane sash and case window set in a recessed, over-arched bay at ground floor, and a single square loft opening above (all loft openings were boarded up in 1993). Two small cast-iron rooflights sit in the south slope of the roof over the centre block, with a single cast-iron roof-light over the left-hand advanced bay. Two small pipe flues project from the south slope. The west gable contains two doors: a taller door on the left for mounted horses, and a pedestrian door on the right.

Openings to the rear are boarded up except for a centre door at ground floor, situated in the re-entrant angle with the single-storey brick-built east rear wing.

The west range is single-storey with a loft. Its five-bay symmetrical south elevation features a centre pedimented bay that projects forward, containing a single pedestrian door at ground level (altered from an original larger pend opening at an early date) and bi-partite windows flanked by single windows at loft above (these windows altered from their original form). This advanced bay breaks through the eaves, and the pediment features a circular blind opening in its head, raised over the wallhead, with a corniced stack behind. The two bays on either side contain single windows set in recessed arched bays (the windows are boarded up, and were presumably originally 12-pane sash and case). Two bi-partite windows on each side have lintels breaking through the eaves, with slightly raised cat-slide roofs (later alterations).

The interior contains original timber loose-boxes with serpentine-topped stalls.

The east wing is single-storey, constructed of squared rubble with a piended slate roof, various openings, and a single ridge stack. A rubble-built wall of the same height as the wall-head of the single-storey east wing partially encloses the north side, forming a courtyard. Possible bee-boles are located on the north side of this wall, which presumably originally enclosed a walled garden to the north of the stable block, distinct from the separate walled garden to the south.