Rhives House

Rhives House is a large house dated 1840, built upon an early 19th-century core, with later 19th-century additions and alterations. The exterior is harled with ashlar dressings and margins. The house has a two-storey, three-bay frontage facing southeast. The central doorway is hidden behind a Scottish Baronial drum-tower that rises the full height of the house, topped with a square cap. This cap is corbelled out above the first floor, with a central window, crowsteps, and an apex stack. A side entrance is featured within the tower, and it also has a front window. These are linked by a continuous hood mould. Wide outer bay windows are present at ground floor level, with the window on the left now masked by a modern sun parlour. Late 19th-century shaped gablets with crests adorn the first floor windows. The windows have 12- and 16-pane glazing. The house features crowstepped gables, paired corniced end stacks set diagonally, and a slate roof.

Extensive two-storey rear wings of varying dates are present, along with a single-storey, two-bay wing at the east, linked to the main house by a covered way.

The house was built in the early 19th century as a residence for the Sutherland Estates Factor, and it originally included an apartment for clerks, as documented in 1820. The drum-tower porch is original to the house and lacks later detailing. Rhives House is now used as a building for the Local Authority.

Further information comes from James Loch's "An Account of the Improvements on the Estates of Lord Stafford" (1820) and records held in the National Library of Scotland.