Novar House

Novar House is a large house with a complex history, dating from approximately 1720, built on an earlier site that may incorporate older fabric. The house is arranged around an inner courtyard, with service wings extending north to form a walled courtyard. The exterior is largely harled, with ashlar and rendered dressings.

The main south-facing block is a symmetrical three-storey and attic, five-bay design, dated 1720. In 1897, the wallhead and attic storey were raised, and carved stones were inserted above each first-floor window. It has three dormers with decorative gables and corniced end stacks. Two-storey, two-bay wings flank the central block on the east and west sides, each with a full-height canted bay window. The rear wings include a projecting cross wing that encloses the inner courtyard. This is accessed through a central bay with an open pediment, a narrow arched entrance, rusticated rendered pilasters with eagle finials, and a round-headed window on the first floor. A modern, asymmetrically placed porticoed entrance was added to the main house within the inner courtyard in 1956. Service wings at the rear each incorporate three garages with rendered surrounds featuring rusticated keystoned detailing. Most windows have 12 panes of glass, with corniced end and ridge stacks, crow-stepped gables and a mix of piended and gabled slate roofs.

The outer courtyard is enclosed by high, coped rubble walls, with a central entrance to the north, flanked by a pair of rusticated gate piers with moulded copes and ball finials.

The interior has undergone alterations to the ground floor plans, as a result of later additions, and because the principal entrance was moved from the centre of the south side to the north side of the house. The large, central south ground floor hall was enlarged and converted into a dining room, with an inserted party wall screening the centre staircase. A west drawing room, dating from the later 18th century, originally contained swagged plaster ceiling mouldings and a De Wit allegorical painting, which was removed from Rosehaugh (Avoch parish) in 1893 and demolished around 1972. A similar room on the east side has later 18th-century simple moulded ceiling cornices. There are various later 18th-century chimney pieces, doors and doorcases throughout the house. A wide, later 18th-century staircase features turned wood balusters, leading to a first-floor landing and a long first-floor drawing room covering the entire centre south five bays. The ornate, later 18th-century Adamesque moulded ceiling is divided into three deep compartments, and there are later 18th-century wooden chimney pieces with simple swags. A small, late 19th-century gallery is situated above the central doorway, decorated as a ceiling.

Walled gardens extend to the west, including an ornamental walled garden with niches containing garden statuary, created in 1956. A further large walled garden, with high coped rubble walls and ornate wrought iron gates, stands to the north of the house.