Walled Garden, Ballachulish House, South Ballachulish

Ballachulish House is a substantial laird's house of mid to late 18th-century origin, built in two phases. The eastern range dates possibly to 1764, whilst the western range was added possibly around 1799. An early to mid-19th-century two-storey, four-bay rectangular-plan wing extends at right angles to the north. A single-storey kitchen wing adjoins the main block to the south, with a 20th-century single-storey glazed extension to the rear. The house and associated bothy are constructed of white harled rubble, with stone cills to the west elevation of the main block.

The principal west elevation comprises five bays with a central timber-panelled door, plain fanlight, and flanking windows. The first floor has five windows centred above the ground floor openings, and a central cast-iron rooflight. The single-storey kitchen wing projects southward with a large timber-mullioned window.

The east and south elevations form an L-plan courtyard arrangement. The main block's eastern elevation has five bays with an off-centre piended porch to the left and flanking window; a long single-pitch conservatory runs along the right side. A long central stair window and flanking first-floor windows light the interior, with a large central pitched dormer window wholly set within the roof and slate cheeks. The north wing's southern elevation has three bays with a central timber-panelled door with astragalled fanlight, flanking windows, and two first-floor windows.

On the garden-facing north elevation, the main block displays a ground-floor window to the left with a first-floor window above. The north wing presents four bays with three ground-floor windows and a door to the right return with raggles from a lean-to porch; four first-floor windows comprise a long stair window to the far right, with three Velux rooflights.

The interior features a central stone staircase to the main block with stone risers to the first flight. A double drawing room at the north end contains two early 19th-century marble fireplaces with plain cornices; most rooms retain late 19th-century fire surrounds. Windows are predominantly plate glass in timber sash-and-case frames, though numerous 12-pane timber sash-and-case windows remain throughout. The long stair window to the rear of the main block and the north elevation of the north wing are notable features.

The pitched roofs are finished in grey slates with coped gablehead and ridge stacks topped with circular clay cans.

A single-storey bothy with attic space, dating to the early to mid-19th century, stands to the southeast. It is rectangular in plan with three bays and rendered finish. The west elevation has a timber door to the left, a central window with an inscribed and dated lintel carved with a heart shape separating the initials '17 IS MW 64' above, and a stable door to the right. The south gablehead features a dovecot opening with alighting ledge. The east elevation has three ground-floor windows; the north elevation shows one ground-floor window to the left and one attic-floor window to the right. Three Velux rooflights pierce the pitched roof of grey slates with a coped and rendered gablehead stack to the south.

The walled garden, dating to the late 18th to early 19th century, is roughly rectangular in plan and now largely detached from the house to the north (the southwest portion of the wall has been removed). It is constructed of random smooth stone rubble with slate vertical coping and features a central door to the north wall. Isolated stone steps exist to the south.

At the south end of the walled garden stands a rubble column supporting a slate table dial as a sundial. A probably 20th-century rubble and slate circular fountain basin sits at the north end.

Smooth rubble boundary walls to the east connect to the line of the walled garden. Circular-plan smooth rubble gatepiers stand to the west at the A828 junction, connected to an L-plan low boundary wall and topped with conical smooth rubble caps, recently repaired.

Ballachulish House was formerly the seat of the Stewarts of Ballachulish. The marriage lintel now incorporated into the bothy, bearing the initials of John Stewart, 5th of Ballachulish, and his wife Margaret (daughter of William Wilson of Murrayshall), was probably originally set in the eastern range of the main block. The original house is said to have been built in 1640 and was reported to be the location from which the decision on the date for the Massacre of Glencoe was made in 1692. The original house was later burnt down by Hanoverian soldiers in 1746. The house now operates as Ballachulish House Hotel (established 2002). The former home farm to the south has been significantly altered in the late 20th century. The fountain and sundial do not appear on Ordnance Survey maps of 1875 and 1900.