Over Rankeilour House

The Octagonal Enclosure at Over Rankeillor House is a significant architectural structure built between 1796 and 1800. The building was designed by architect James MacLeran, who passed away before construction began, and was overseen by architect Alexander Laing, mason Roger Black, and wrights Peter Nicol and Kilgour.

This two-storey classical mansion features a symmetrical nine-bay south front and service wings to the north, constructed from lightly droved yellow ashlar with polished dressings. The principal entrance is now located in the four-bay east elevation, featuring a tall, depressed-arched off-centre doorway, which may have been added around 1883, with a glazed door, sidelights, and a large fanlight. The other openings are fitted with 12-pane sash windows. The south elevation showcases three central advanced and pedimented bays flanked by giant Ionic pilasters, with the original central door replaced by a 15-pane window. All openings are framed in architraves and feature 12-pane sashes, complemented by a mutule cornice and a balustraded parapet. The west elevation includes tripartite and 12-pane sashes, with symmetrically placed rendered stacks and a piended slate roof.

Inside, the central hall is notable for its round-headed passages and doors set in round-headed panels, adorned with a decorative plasterwork frieze featuring swags and a delicate ceiling rose above a square cantilevered stair. The low service wing to the north is primarily a two-storey U-plan block with five bays on the north elevation, a central porch, and first-floor windowheads of the three inner bays raised above the eaves with flat roofs, along with wall-head stacks on the advanced outer bays. This wing is linked to the main house and to a low single-storey rectangular-plan block to the west, which has a 12-pane sash window recessed in a round-headed panel on its south elevation.

To the north, there is a large octagonal enclosure, likely designed by Alexander Laing. This enclosure is constructed from rubble with ashlar dressings and features flat stone coping, a round-arched opening to the north, and two square-headed gates to the south, with blind, round-headed panels on each intermediate face. The interior walls have some lean-to sheds. Additionally, there is a square-plan piend-roofed block, now used as a garage, which has a segmental-headed opening on its south elevation. The west drive is marked by two circular droved ashlar gatepiers.