Sundial, Gardeners' House And Bothy, Fordell Castle

Dated 1855, the Gardener's House and Bothy, now a single dwelling, is a single-storey and attic building with a T-shaped plan. It is constructed of narrow, squared, and roughly-faced sandstone, with dressed ashlar for the belfry and dormers, and sandstone dressings. The corners are defined by quoins with roughly-tooled details. The roof is covered in graded grey slates, featuring narrow bargeboards and projecting eaves supported by brackets.

The south (garden) elevation is symmetrical, with a central, forward-projecting gable. This gable has a ground-floor, four-light, angled bay window with moulded openings, and a similarly styled window above. A raised carving of a monogram and the date ‘GWMH / 1855’ is set within a shield at the gablehead, topped with a finial. Recessed bays flank the central gable, each having a gabled porch at the re-entrant angle, incorporating chamfered and hoodmoulded door openings. Heraldic carvings of a bare fist holding a flower and an albatross are featured on the outer bays at eaves level. A cast-iron rooflight is located to the left of the right-hand dormer.

The east elevation is a plain gable.

The north (rear) elevation includes a slated lean-to shed, formerly an outside toilet, with a timber-boarded door on its return. A timber panel and glazed door is situated to the right, with another blocked doorway to the far right, also with a timber and glazed panel. A tripartite window is on the left of the shed, and a single window is on the far left. Two gabled dormers break the eaves, with smaller Velux rooflights flanking them.

The west elevation features a corbelled, lancet-arched belfry projecting from the attic floor, with a cast-iron bell topped by a fleur-de-lis finial.

The windows are diamond-paned and leaded, with timber cross-mullioned frames, though some lower window panes have been replaced with plate glass. Modern timber and glazed doors are present. Ashlar cornices define the gableheads, with a central corniced ashlar ridge stack and circular clay cans. The interior contains no particularly noteworthy original features.

A sundial consists of a freestone column with a stepped base and a table dial. The fountain, dating to the late 19th century, comprises a circular, ashlar-coped trough with cast-iron figures of the three Graces on a cast-iron pedestal, a central Corinthian column, and a gadrooned bowl with a decorative finial. The gatepiers, located to the northeast of the house and dating to the 18th century, are large, square-plan, vermiculated and droved ashlar piers with vermiculated, stepped caps.