Achany House

Achany House is a large house dating from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with significant additions made in the mid-19th century and further rear extensions in the late 19th century. The symmetrical front façade is three storeys high with five bays, with the outer bays projecting as circular drum towers. The walls are harled with tooled ashlar margins and dressings. The central three bays appear to represent the original core of the building, featuring a central doorway with panelled pilasters, a door, and a decorative fanlight. Later 19th-century bowed bays extend outwards, rising the full height of the building and terminating in conical slate roofs with finials. Five pedimented dormers are set into the roofline, with the central dormer having decorative detailing and ball finials; a deep eaves band runs along the roofline. Canted bay windows are present on both return elevations, with a flight of steps and a decorative cast-iron balustrade on the east side.

The original E-plan rear of the house was infilled in the late 19th century, creating a five-gabled north elevation. The centre rear gable conceals a stairwell. A further two-storey, five-bay symmetrical wing fronts the north elevation, with first-floor windows breaking the eaves beneath barge-boarded gables. The windows are largely 12-pane sashes; corniced end and ridge stacks rise from the slate roof.

Inside, curved-ended parlours flank the centre entrance hall, which features contemporary panelled doors and window shutters. Bowed, panelled cupboard doors and decorative plaster friezes are also present. Mid-19th century long and narrow dining and drawing rooms occupy the central three-bay portion. House plans held by the current owner show thick outside walls between the centre three bays and the outer bays; the additional outer bays contain long, narrow drawing and dining rooms on the ground floor.

Achany House was historically the seat of the Munro and Rose families and was purchased by Sir James Matheson in 1840. East and west canted bay windows appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1874, but the rear additions are not depicted. References to the house are found in The Statistical Account (1791-3), the New Statistical Account (1834), and Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1885).