Seaforth Centre

Seaforth Centre

Built 1906–8 (datestone 1907) by Robert Macbeth of Ross & Macbeth as the Seaforth Sanatorium, this grade B listed building remains little altered. It is a half-butterfly plan sanatorium designed to maximise sunshine exposure, with French windows giving access to outside areas. The building was constructed for the treatment of tuberculosis patients from Ross and Cromarty, funded and endowed by Colonel Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth and his wife Mary Margaret.

The complex comprises a two-storey, three-bay administration block at the centre with single-storey ward wings arranged on the butterfly plan, a kitchen and service block to the rear, and a gate lodge. The principal materials are harling with ashlar base course, band and cill courses, and quoin strips and margins to the principal block and return elevations of the wards. Windows feature timber mullions and transoms throughout, with predominating plate glass sash and case windows and some casements.

The main block on its north (entrance) elevation displays a taller centre bay advanced with a keystone segmental-arched doorway containing decoratively half-glazed two-leaf doors and ensuite fanlight. The first-floor window has an ashlar pedimented memorial panel breaking the eaves above. Windows on the returns appear at ground and first-floor levels, with the first-floor window breaking eaves in a piended dormerhead and a narrow window positioned close to the re-entrant angle.

The south (principal) elevation features a broad, taller canted bay at the centre with regular fenestration. An armorial panel surmounts the first-floor centre window, supporting a pedimented dormer ornamented with sculpted stone animals. Two windows occupy the ground floor in each outer bay, with single first-floor windows breaking eaves in ornate ashlar pedimented dormerheads. Tall corniced and ashlar-dressed wallhead stacks with fireclay cans rise prominently. Simple dormer windows pierce the east and west elevations; all dormers feature oculi on their flanks. The picturesque central section bears elaborate armorials of the Stewart Mackenzies carved on the dormerheads.

The ward wings are rectangular in plan with gambrel roofs. Each comprises a three-bay elevation with bipartite windows to the north and a linking bay flanking the main block to the south, with two-leaf part-glazed doors in the outer bays. Two windows serve each return elevation. A single-storey sanitary annexe adjoins at centre to each wing.

The service block, sited opposite the entrance to the main building, is a single-storey T-plan structure with materials and architectural detailing matching the principal block. It features a taller main block with lower flanking wings and pedimented dormerheads to the return elevations.

The porter's lodge is presumably part of the original concept. It is a single-storey building with attic, three bays, and jerkin-roof (slated). The design is symmetrical, with a two-leaf boarded centre door with roundels and an open timber porch. Small-paned glazing includes sashes at ground floor (tripartite windows) and casements in piended bipartite dormers. The lodge is harled with ashlar margins, end stacks, and decorative ridging.

The roofs throughout are grey slate with piened profiles and sweeping eaves.