Former Inverness Royal Academy Building and Lodge, Including Boundary Wall, Railings and Gatepiers, St Stephen's Street, Inverness - 1913 Building

Former Inverness Royal Academy Building and Lodge, St Stephen's Street, Inverness

The principal building is a substantial 2-storey, 7-bay, symmetrical T-plan former school academy building designed by Ross and Macbeth in 1895, with a major extension to the southeast added in 1913. Built in red sandstone ashlar and executed in the François 1er style, the original 1895 building features gableted centre and advanced end bays framed with engaged pilasters at ground floor level, rising to octagonal piers at first floor surmounted by octagonal domes. A corniced bandcourse serves as entablature. The end bays contain mullioned and transomed tripartite and bipartite windows; those at first floor are set in round-headed arches with carved tympana. The central first-floor window is set in a round-headed overarch with an elaborately carved tympanum. A scalloped parapet with ogee gablet marks the centre, above which rises a large ogee-roofed slated belfry. The building features predominantly long-pane timber sash and case windows, gabled slated roofs, and some metal roof vents in the form of lanterns. Cast iron hoppers and drain pipes complete the external details.

The 1913 extension, attributed solely to Macbeth and executed in similar style and material, forms a long 2-storey roughly rectangular block to the southeast corner, positioned at an elevated location next to the roadway. Its wide central entrance bay on the southwest is framed with engaged pilasters at ground floor rising to octagonal piers at first floor, terminated with small domes. Flanking single-storey blocks flank these piers: the left-hand block is gabled with a pedimented doorway, while the right-hand block features a scalloped parapet. Gabled blocks are set back to rear blocks, with mullioned and transomed fenestration including round-headed arches with blind tympana. A corniced eaves course and ball finials to gable apexes complete the design. Cast iron hoppers and drain pipes are present.

The interior, surveyed in 2014, remains largely intact with numerous late 19th-century fixtures and fittings. A large central assembly hall with atrium features cast iron Doric columns, railings, and decorative spandrels. The atrium is spanned by a hammerbeam roof with timber trusses and several skylight openings, and is accessed by an imperial staircase to the rear. Timber panels with corniced dado run throughout corridors and former classrooms. Classrooms feature coombed ceilings, and some herringbone parquet flooring survives.

The former lodge to the north dates to 1899 and is a single-storey, 3-bay, square-plan symmetrical building in red sandstone ashlar, originally serving as a caretaker residence, with a small extension to the rear. A prominent and advanced gabled stone porch contains a timber two-leaf entrance set in a semi-circular ribbed arch with rounded chamfered corners. Stacks rise from the gable ends, with large flat skews and shouldered skewputts supporting a slated roof. Bipartite windows with six over plate glass timber sash and case windows provide fenestration. The interior plan, surveyed in 2014, remains largely intact. A plain painted glass skylight lights the foyer, and original features such as fireplaces (now blocked) and their surrounds survive.

The site is bounded by a low coped coursed rubble boundary wall with decorative iron railings dating to circa 1950, and pyramidal-capped gatepiers fronting Stephen's Street.