Balgeddie House Hotel

Balgeddie House Hotel is a 2-storey harled house with attics and gabled ends, designed by James Gillespie and Scott in 1936. It was extended and converted to hotel use soon after construction, possibly by Mills & Shepherd. The walls are harled with a contrasting base course and moulded string course, with quoins and stone mullions in contrast material.

The main south elevation displays a 7-bay composition with grouped fenestration (1-2-1-2-1), a centre tripartite window with bipartite window above, two windows to the right at both floors, and to the left a window and two-leaf part-glazed door with tripartite fanlight. Six modern rooflights are grouped 2-2-2. Large advanced gables flank each end: the right gable has a tripartite window at both floors plus a small gablehead window; the left features a canted bay window at both floors and a small gablehead window.

The north entrance elevation is deeply set. To the right of centre is a round-headed multi-panelled door with decorative fanlight, set in a moulded and pilastered ashlar doorcase with a window above. A projecting gable to the right contains three windows at ground floor, windows to left and right at first floor, and a small gablehead window. To the left are two small windows with a stair window above, then three further windows on each floor, four modern rooflights, and a quadripartite rooflight. A left projecting gable has a boarded door with tripartite fanlight and stair window over, with windows at first and second floors and a small gablehead window. A lower outer left wing contains a tripartite window at ground floor beneath a bipartite flat-roofed dormer breaking the eaves, with a small single-storey flat-roofed porch featuring a centre window and large extractor ventilation pipe above.

The west elevation is a 3-bay composition with a centre glazed door in an advanced moulded ashlar doorcase with narrow fanlight and side lights in a stepped wall partly masking an original tripartite door. Flanking bays contain windows at ground floor, with windows to left and centre at first floor. Six modern rooflights are grouped 2-2-2.

The east elevation contains a small gable to the left breaking the eaves, with a door and adjacent narrow light to the left and two first-floor windows to the right, plus a modern rooflight to the outer left. A lower adjoining wing to the right has bipartite windows to left and right and five small windows at first floor in its south face, with windows at first and second floors in its east face.

Throughout the building, fenestration consists of small-pane glazing in sash and case or pivot windows. Roofing is grey slate with coped ashlar chimney stacks and exposed eaves with plain bargeboards.

The interior retains a wooden staircase with alternate straight and turned balusters, matching that at Leslie House, along with some original panelling and vented radiator cupboards. Moulded stone chimneypieces and ornate scrolled and pilastered examples have been retained in principal rooms.

The house was built as a birthday gift for a member of the Nairn family, commissioned by Major Sir Robert Spencer Nairn. It is reported to contain wooden flooring obtained from a decommissioned minesweeper. Gillespie and Scott records detail panels, fireplace, and smoke room elements from Braehead, while the boiler room layout was designed by Mackenzie and Moncur Ltd, Heating Engineers of Edinburgh.