Carmelite Monastery, Dysart

Carmelite Monastery, Dysart

This is a substantial house begun in 1726 with James Campbell as principal contractor. The building was substantially enlarged between 1808 and 1814, with the south-west and north-east wings probably designed by Alexander Laing with Roger Black as builder. The structure has undergone minor alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries, including a porch added in 1900 by James Gillespie & Scott and further alterations in 1930 by Walter Alison.

The main building is 2 storeys with an attic, basement, and a 3-storey bow, arranged as a 3-bay house with a piend roof. The south-west and north-east wings are 3 storeys, each with a bow to the south-west and a 3-storey return to the north-east, creating a U-shaped plan. Construction is in squared and snecked rubble with dressed ashlar quoins and margins. A base course and eaves cornice with blocking course run across the later wings and porch. Stone mullions frame the windows throughout, many of which retain small-pane and plate glass glazing in timber sash and case frames.

The south-east (garden) elevation is a 6-bay façade. The original 3 bays occupy the right portion, while a full-height advanced bow dominates the centre, featuring a part-glazed timber door to the basement and flanking windows, three windows to the ground and first floors, and a tripartite window above. To the right of this bow is a bay with a window on each floor; the bay to its left has a basement window. A serpentine stone stair leads to a ground-floor balcony with a tripartite window and a further window at first-floor level. Small slate-hung dormer windows sit above the outer bays. Bays to the left of the centre continue a full-width balcony supported on square-section columns; three French windows open to the basement, with three windows to each floor above. All ground-floor windows are notably large.

The north-west (entrance) elevation is symmetrically fenestrated across two advanced outer wings, the right wing containing a full-height canted window on its left return; each wing has a broad wallhead stack. The wings are linked by a low, 7-bay flat-roofed porch with a glazed canopy on decorative cast-iron columns. The centre features a pilastered and block-pedimented doorway with a part-glazed panelled timber door in the penultimate bay to the left. Behind this porch is the gambrel roof of a former ballroom with a dormer window at the centre, a full-width rooflight, and a pointed-arch opening to the left gablet. The recessed face of the original house is visible behind these additions, with two small dormer windows. A low piended office wing projecting to the right has a modern flat-roofed porch.

The south-west elevation presents a 5-bay façade with a lower office wing at the outer left. A full-height bowed bay stands to the left of centre with three windows on each floor; a further window to each floor and an additional ground-floor window occupy the bay to the outer left. The bay to the right contains a small round-headed window to the left at ground level and irregularly disposed windows on each floor. An advanced bay at the outer right has two windows on each floor. The lower wing at the outer left displays asymmetrical fenestration.

The north-east elevation is a symmetrical 4-bay façade with a door to the left of centre at basement level.

The coped rubble chimney stacks have flue dividers. A continuous hoodmould runs across the porch.

Internally, the house retains panelled shutters, some dado rails, and both decorative and plain plasterwork cornicing. The hall features a marble floor and a carved fireplace with flanking paired Ionic columns, a fluted frieze, cavetto cornice, and marble slips. The former ballroom, now a top-lit choir, has been significantly altered. The south-east rooms in the original building—the day room and infirmary—retain architraved doors, moulded dadoes, and fine plasterwork ceilings. The library to the west, with its bowed windows, has panelled soffits. A south-east basement room retains original sliding French windows. Vaulted cellars survive beneath the house. An early electric dumb waiter is present in the building.

St Serf's Cave predates 1540 and consists of a natural cave with three small chambers and natural hollows carved to form seats. An ashlar doorway and a pointed-arch window connect to an adjacent cave.

The property includes a terraced garden of probable 16th-century origin with stone staircases and terraces. Low ashlar-coped walls enclose former parterres, and a crenellated wall runs along the south-east. A 20th-century burial ground occupies part of the grounds. A classical ashlar garden building with rusticated quoins, a keystoned hoodmould, and a moulded cornice stands within the garden. Extensive ashlar-coped rubble boundary walls enclose the property, with some sections raised in brick.