Stable, Starley Hall School, Aberdour Road, Burntisland

Starley Hall School, Aberdour Road, Burntisland

A Scots Baronial house designed by Peddie and Kinnear in 1861, built on sloping ground falling to the south. The building is 2 storeys with basement and attic, featuring square and corner towers and turrets with corbel tables and open corbelled turrets. The entrance is marked by a crenellated archway with a coat-of-arms. The exterior is constructed of squared and snecked sandstone with polished ashlar quoins and dressings, incorporating a base course, band course and eaves cornice. Windows and doors are architraved with segmental headed openings, gunloops, and stone transoms and mullions with stop-chamfered arrises.

The north elevation contains a tripartite doorway as the main entrance, with a 2-leaf panelled door topped by a 3-pane fanlight set within a crowstepped gable at centre. A rounded corner with corbel marks the first floor to the right, with a bay window to the left of centre below the corbel course. The first floor includes a window in the gablehead and a further window with dormerhead breaking the eaves to the left. To the right of centre, stone steps descend to the basement with a flanked door and windows. A full-height modern stack occupies the re-entrant with an adjacent window, narrow window, and further window to the outer right at ground floor level. The first floor displays a carved tablet to the left, a bay window to the outer right with a finialled dormer window above, and a large rooflight.

The east elevation is arranged in three bays with an adjoining corner tower at the outer left. A bipartite window marks the centre ground, while a slightly advanced finialled lop-sided gable with rounded corners rises to the right, containing a window converted from a door set into an architraved doorcase below a blind tablet and stepped corbel. The slightly jettied first floor above has a window at centre below a finialled segmental pediment with sunburst moulding in the gablehead topped by a thistle finial. A modern fire escape door to the left of centre sits in a crowstepped gable. A fire escape crosses the left bay toward a bipartite window at centre, where the left side has been converted to a part-glazed door with a gabled dormerhead breaking the eaves at first floor level. A small blind tablet sits in the gablehead to the left of centre above a fanlit door.

The south-east corner contains a 3-storey tower. Blind at ground level, it rises to a 5-stage round corbel supporting a round quadripartite window at first floor, corbelled above to a square. A window at centre is topped by a steeply pitched gable with a small moulded tablet in the gablehead.

The south elevation presents the most complex composition, with a crowstepped chimneyheaded gable to a 3-storey with attic tower at centre. A lower 3-storey wing extends to the right, with a gabled corner tower at the outer right. A 5-storey turret occupies the re-entrant to the left, adjoining a single storey stepped-back link section. A slightly advanced 2-storey with attic wing extends beyond, adjoining a roofless turret at the outer left. A blind moulded panel and balustraded stone balcony on moulded consoles with rounded corners corbelled to a square appear below bartizans to the centre tower. A canted window on deep corbel sits below two dormerheaded windows to the outer right wing. Gunloop windows, corbelled top floor and finialled bellcast roof mark the turret. The left wing features a lop-sided crowstepped gable with finialled dormer windows, trefoil mouldings and gunloop windows.

Windows throughout feature 2-, 6- and 10-pane glazing patterns with plate glass in timber sash and case frames. The roof is covered in graded grey and fish-scale pattern slates. Ashlar stacks are coped and shouldered with ashlar coped skews and skewputts, complemented by decorative stone and cast-iron finials.

The interior retains contemporary decoration including marble chimneypieces and fine plaster cornices. The original entrance hall contains niches, leading to an inner hallway with a marble chimneypiece surmounted by a panel bearing a coat-of-arms. The ceiling is panelled with decorative cornicing. A scale-and-platt staircase with boarded treads, timber newel posts, handrail and finials rises under a 6-pane lantern over the stairwell. The drawing room features elaborate plasterwork cornicing that extends into a rounded window and centre rose. The dining room displays decorative cornicing and marble chimneypieces, with some original working shutters retained. Decorative cast-iron balusters and a timber handrail continue to the top of the turret stair.

The outbuildings include a single storey slated rubble outhouse, originally a stable, now converted. This features a blocked cart arch with flanking doors (one blocked to the left) set within an irregular pair of crowstepped gables at centre, with a blind tablet in a large gablehead to the left and a window to the right. A blind bay projects to the outer right, though a projecting extension has been demolished. A door and window sit to the left of centre.

A crenellated wall of coped stugged ashlar with bull-faced dressings incorporates a segmental-headed arch with a mask keystone and cast-iron coat-of-arms on a raised centre stone. A small hollow tower with cross-gunloop and quatrefoil opening marks the north end of the wall.

The terrace wall is a low semicircular-coped structure punctuated with urn stands. Rubble boundary walls enclose the orchard, while coped rubble boundary walls with inset cast-iron railings line the road. The gatepiers are constructed of stop-chamfered coped ashlar with ball finials.