Portland Arms Hotel, Lybster

The Portland Arms Hotel is a building dated 1851. It comprises a main block of two storeys and an attic, with seven bays, and a further four-bay section abutting the east gable. The building is rendered with lines indicating ashlar, and features painted ashlar margins.

The main block’s central doorway is masked by a large gabled porch, dated 1968. The ground floor windows flanking the doorway have alternating triangular and segmental headed pediments. First-floor windows have cornices and pediments added in the late 19th century and are linked by a cill course. Four later dormers have bargeboarding. Channelled angle giant pilasters terminate in pyramidal skewputts.

The adjoining four-bay section is set back and has a later two-storey frontage forming a balcony fronting the upper floor. It includes a canted bay window rising the full height and enlarged windows flanking a corniced entrance.

Most windows have 12 panes of glass. The roof is slate-covered and features ridge and end stacks. A series of late 19th-century photographs held within the hotel show the building with a plain frontage.