Ornamental Outbuilding, Balrossie School, Kilmacolm

Ornamental Outbuilding, Balrossie School, Kilmacolm

Designed by David Barclay and built in 1898-99, this is a 2-storey, roughly rectangular Scottish Renaissance orphanage with gothic details. The building is dominated by a piended roof with a prominent gabled section at its centre. The principal frontage is stepped and features towers, a gable, an oriel window, and buttresses. Two single-storey service wings extend from the rear, and bay windows project from the side elevations. The exterior walls are constructed of roughcast-rendered whinstone rubble with painted red sandstone ashlar dressings. A base course runs around the building, and deep bracketed eaves project at the eaves line. The walls are articulated with raised long and short quoins and window margins, and the windows are predominantly stone-mullioned bipartite openings.

On the east (principal) elevation, an entrance lobby is positioned to the right of centre with a round turret behind. A broad gable occupies the centre, featuring an oriel window, and a 3-storey crenellated tower rises to the left of the gable with a shouldered diagonal buttress. Irregularly fenestrated sections flank either side, and a piend-roofed tower is slightly advanced at the outer left. The doorpiece features a roll-moulded, depressed-arch opening set within a gabled sandstone architrave with a cartouche to the tympanum. Flanking shouldered buttresses frame the entrance. Above, a dormered round-arched window is set into the gable. The oriel window to the first floor of the gable is particularly ornate, with decorative carved corbels, a shouldered supporting buttress beneath, sidelights, and a traceried semicircular window above, topped by a ball finial.

The north and south elevations feature irregularly fenestrated 3-bay compositions. The south elevation includes a 2-storey canted window in its left bay, while a single-storey rectangular bay window is diagonally positioned across the north-east corner.

The west (rear) elevation has a gable to its centre with a tripartite window at first floor level, and fairly regular fenestration to the bays. Two long single-storey service ranges extend westward from here.

The windows throughout are timber sash and case design, with plate glass glazing to the front elevations and small-pane glazing to the rear. The roof is laid with graded grey slate, with ashlar-coped skews. Cast-iron rainwater goods with rectangular hoppers complete the details.

The annex, formerly girls' accommodation, is 2-storey with attic storey and forms a 3-bay villa with an advanced gable to the east (front). A gothic porch sits at the re-entrant angle, and large gabled dormers are set into the roof. A transomed and mullioned staircase window is evident, and a swept-roof playshed adjoins to the west. The walls are rendered whinstone with painted red sandstone dressings, base course, and raised long and short quoins with window and door margins. The east elevation features an advanced gable to the left with a canted bay window at ground level. The gothic porch to the right has a swept roof, timber fretwork, and sandstone columns, reached by 4 steps. A slightly advanced tripartite window to the right is inscribed 'The Gift of H[?] 1899', with two large gabled bipartite dormers above. A tripartite window appears at ground level on the south elevation. A swept-roof playshed to the rear is supported on cast-iron columns. A 20th-century addition exists to the north. The annex windows are timber sash and case (now boarded up). Corniced red brick stacks with short red clay cans rise from the roof. Plain bargeboards and deep bracketed eaves complete the detailing. The roof is laid with graded grey slate, red terracotta ridge tiles, and gable finials. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

The ornamental outbuilding itself is a small, square-plan structure with a flat roof, forming a focal point within the garden. It is rendered brick with painted red sandstone dressings, a deep battered base course, and a coped wallhead. Rusticated long and short quoins and window margins articulate the walls. Central windows open to the side and rear elevations. The principal feature is a studded timber-boarded door with strap hinges, set within a deep round-arched, roll-moulded architrave. A panel above the door contains a cartouche inscribed 'The Gift of H[?] 1899'. Four steps lead to the door.

An ancillary building stands to the west of the main block, comprising a 2-storey, 4-bay structure with dormers to the east elevation. It is rendered brick with painted brick dressings.

Garden terraces with sandstone steps are laid out to the west of the main building. The boundary treatment includes corniced, cylindrical gatepiers terminating a coped and rendered boundary wall, with 2-leaf cast-iron gates. Iron railings form the boundary elsewhere.