Easterheughs

Easterheughs

William Thomas, dated 1946-1955. A 4-storey, 2-bay tower house with a single-storey wing to the east, built on a south-facing rocky outcrop. The walls are constructed from reclaimed random rubble and ashlar with reclaimed and reconstituted moulded stone window and door surrounds.

East Elevation

The single-storey east wing has a steeply pitched roof and projects at the left, featuring a narrow vertical central attic window. The principal elevation has twin gables clasping a corbelled-out parapet at the centre, with windows offset from centre in each gablehead. The entrance and stair tower, positioned at the right, has a curved northeast corner that is recessed and corbelled out to a square at the caphouse. The caphouse stair is accompanied by an adjoining stone oriel window corbelled out in the re-entrant angle. A round-arched entrance doorway with Gibbsian surrounds is centred at ground level, with further Gibbsian surrounds to windows at the first and second floors.

North Elevation

The east wing is set back to the left with a central window topped by a ball-finialled stone dormerhead breaking the eaves. The slightly advanced principal range has a ground-floor window to the left and a narrow window to the right. A large first-floor window sits to the left, with a small blind window with moulded lintel to the right, and an attic window breaking the eaves to the left with a corniced flat-roofed stone dormerhead. The stair tower projects to the right with a corbelled section in the inner angle culminating in a small corbelled caphouse with a stone cross finial. The northeast elevation of the stair tower features curved corners to the ground and first floors, corbelled out to the caphouse. A Gibbsian surround frames the first-floor window, above which is set a memorial plaque. The central caphouse window has a moulded architrave.

West Elevation

Rising from the rocky outcrop, a single-bay stair tower is integral to the left side of the elevation, with a door at ground level and windows at intermediate levels above. Two regularly fenestrated bays with a crenellated wallhead occupy the right side, with the elevation curving back to adjoin the regularly fenestrated 2-storey and attic west gable of the principal range.

South Elevation

The principal range displays regular fenestration across a symmetrical 2-bay elevation, with windows at ground floor and large windows with blind arch-heads at first floor. Catslide dormers breaking the eaves clasp a tall central wall-head stack. A crenellated wallhead and curved corner define the regularly fenestrated single-bay end of the west range, set back to the left. A square stone dormerhead breaks the eaves at the centre of the single-storey east wing to the right.

Roof and External Features

The entrance is marked by a timber-studded door with a semicircular fanlight featuring diamond-paned leaded glazing, with diamond-paned leaded lights and timber shutters to windows above. Predominantly multi-pane timber sash-and-case windows are employed throughout. Pitched pantiled roofs feature crowstepped gables, with an M-roof to the principal range and a square parapet lookout platform at the west end of the south ridge. Gable-apex stacks are present.

Interior

The hall floor is finished in marble. A wide concrete newel stair with an early 19th-century timber handrail rises from ground to the first and second floors. Reclaimed 18th-century moulded stone door surrounds are found throughout the ground floor, with a reclaimed moulded stone mantelpiece in the drawing room.

The large first-floor room, formerly a music room, incorporates reclaimed late 17th and early 18th-century features, including a lugged architraved doorpiece with a 3-panelled oak door. This room is finished with painted timber panelling, panelled shutters, and a heavily moulded cornice, with a later 20th-century timber parquet floor. A late 17th-century marble mantelpiece with Corinthian pilasters is flanked by a pair of early 18th-century Ionic pilasters opposite. A secret door at the centre of the east wall leads to a small room above the single-storey east wing. A small partly timber-panelled room occupies the west side.

The second floor is arranged on a split-level, with bedrooms at lower and upper levels joined by a short flight of timber steps. A timber stair at the stair turret leads from the second floor to a room at the caphouse, which features a timber barrel vault and a door to the south giving access to the lookout platform.

Gate Piers and Boundary Walls

Margined gatepiers with rustication to bands and stepped caps are topped with modern carriage lights. A random rubble wall with rounded copes, raised in parts, encloses the house to the north and east.

Garage

An archway linking the house at the north connects to a late 20th-century 2-storey, 2-bay crowstepped gabled garage. Snecked squared random rubble faces the principal east elevation, with rendered surfaces to the remaining elevations. Two segmentally arched openings occupy the ground floor, windows sit at first-floor level to each bay, and a narrow window is centred within the gable of the principal elevation. The pitched roof is finished with modern red pantiles.

Boiler House (former Log Store)

A small random rubble crowstepped lean-to with a mono-pitch pantiled roof is adjoined to the stair tower at the west by a segmental arched doorway. A centred doorway opens to the south, with a small window to the east.

Pump House

A classical small brick rectangular-plan building with reclaimed dressed stone details sits on a lawned area at the foot of the outcrop to the south of the house. A segmentally arched doorway at the centre is framed by evenly spaced rusticated imposts with architrave and voussoir. A deep rusticated base course with rusticated long-and-short quoins to the arrises and a rusticated eaves course to the west and east are features. An ashlar broken moulded pediment crowns the gable at the south. The pitched roof is covered in reclaimed red clay pantiles.