Coul House

Coul House is an unusual villa dating to 1821, with substantial additions made in 1860 by Alexander Ross. The design is centred around two octagons, one of two storeys with two-bay wings attached. It was sympathetically enlarged in 1860 using matching materials and style, now presenting as a two-storey building with varying heights and seven bays, accompanied by a two-storey, three-bay service wing to the south gable. The construction is pinned rubble, featuring contrasting tooled and polished ashlar dressings and a base course.

The west front is characterised by a tall, octagonal central core that projects as a semi-octagon, topped with an octagonal piended roof. This features tall corniced ground floor windows and smaller square windows on the first floor of three faces, all with moulded architraves. Flanking the central octagon are two-storey, two-bay wings, which retain their original ground floor windows. The second floor may have been re-windowed or raised during the 1860 alterations.

The east entrance front showcases a central entrance situated within a semi-octagonal porch, which leads to an octagonal hall. A pedimented portico is supported by painted Roman Doric columns. The porch is flanked by slightly advanced piended outer bays, with a stairwell on the right (west) which appears to be original to 1821.

Further two-storey, two-bay extensions were added in 1860, flanking the west front and extending eastward to create outer wings. These incorporate tall, flat-headed ground floor windows and segmental headed first-floor windows (except for the front octagon). A later 19th-century rectangular bay window is located at ground floor immediately to the right of the central octagon. A later 19th-century, two-storey, three-bay gabled service wing is attached to the south gable.

Some lying-pane glazing remains in the ground floor windows, with multi-pane glazing on the first floor. Square corniced end and ridge stacks are present, along with single and battery groupings of two and four. A shallow slated roof has projecting eaves.

The interior features a semi-octagonal, pilastered entrance hall and an octagonal drawing room, notable for its ornate plaster ceiling with a central roundel decorated with acanthus leaves; key-patterned panels radiate to the cornice. The room retains an original black marble chimney piece. Flanking ground floor rooms, now used as a dining room and bar, also have central acanthus roundels and circular panels with anthemion and palmette detailing to the ceilings, along with moulded cornices. A simple side staircase is fitted with a plain cast iron balustrade and a continuous polished wooden handrail. Simple panelling with moulded plaster dados and a corniced ceiling are also present in the stairwell.