Drumossie Hotel

The Drumossie Hotel, built between 1936 and 1939 by William Taylor of Carruthers Ballantyne and Cox architects in Inverness, is a long, two-storey building with an attic, extending across 22 bays on a north-sloping site. The site accommodates a raised basement at the north end. The ground floor is white harled, separated from the dry-dashed first floor by a continuous band course. A distinctive, three-storey, circular, flat-roofed drum projects from the main building, featuring balconies on the ground and first floors. A large water tower rises to the rear, extending above the roof ridge. A pend, or passageway, runs under a flat-headed archway, leading to rear parking and service areas. The building has regular window placement, with original metal horizontal glazing on the first floor, and casements in eleven wide piended dormers – each dormer lights two rooms – featuring single-pane glazing. The ground-floor windows have been replaced with single-pane glazing. The roofs are bellcast and slate-covered. Contemporary newspaper references document the hotel's planned construction and the scale of the project.