Crichton House

Crichton House

A substantial laird's house of circa 1650, comprising a three-storey L-plan original building with an 18th-century two-and-a-half-storey wing to the west. The house is constructed of rubble, harled and painted white, with flush window margins and crowstepped gables. An octagonal turnpike stair occupies the re-entrant angle between the two wings.

The original east wing presents its principal elevation to the northwest, where the octagonal stair in the re-entrant angle is surmounted by an octagonal slate roof with finial. The ground floor features a roll-moulded and corniced Renaissance entrance doorway with a small window to its left and a plain inset stone plaque above. The upper three storeys contain small windows, with symmetrical two-bay fenestration to the second and third storeys on the right return. A single bay rises on each flank. A coursed sandstone chimney-stack with neck cope and three plain cans rises from this elevation. A modern single-storey addition adjoins the west wing on this face, comprising double doors to the centre with flanking windows, and a window and door to the right return, all beneath a slate roof.

The northeast elevation of the original house has a blind aperture to the ground floor left, windows to the second and third storeys on the left, and a small blind window at the gablehead. The southeast rear elevation displays regular four-bay fenestration with a door to the second right bay at ground floor. The southwest elevation is largely obscured by the adjoining west wing at ground floor level, with windows to the upper storeys only.

The 18th-century west wing presents its principal elevation to the northwest, with a door to the second bay on the left, single flanking windows, and regular four-bay fenestration to the first floor. A small round stair turret in the re-entrant angle is capped with a slate roof and contains a mid-storey window. A single-storey extension adjoins to the left, with an entrance door and window beneath a lean-to slate roof. A stone boundary wall to the front creates a courtyard with double entrance gates.

The southwest elevation of the west wing displays a plain stone skewed gable end with irregular two-and-a-half-storey fenestration and a stone chimney-stack bearing a pair of cans. The southeast rear elevation is a regular two-storey four-bay composition with a door between the ground floor right bays and a central chimney-stack with neck cope and three cans. The northeast elevation adjoins the older east wing.

Throughout the house, windows are twelve-pane timber sash and case to the front elevations, six-pane to the stair turret, and four-pane and nine-pane to the rear of the east wing. A grey slate roof covers the main structures, with an octagonal slated roof to the turret. Crowstepped gables appear throughout, and replacement cast-iron rainwater goods are present.

The interior has been substantially modernised across both wings, although some original fireplaces survive to the third storey of the east wing.

Crichton House superseded Crichton Castle as the seat of the Lairds of Crichton. The house is well documented as having possessed a formal garden by 1729, laid out in the French style by James Justice, author of the Scots Gardiners Directory (1754). A pineapple stove was designed by Richard Cooper, and the house is known to have had well wooded grounds. The estate passed to the Callanders of Westerton, Stirlingshire in 1792. It was the residence of William Burn Callender, Esq, who eventually relocated the family to the new seat of Preston Hall, Cranston. The road known as the Laird's Entry refers to the entrance historically used by the owner and important visitors. Following use as a farmhouse for many years, during which many windows were infilled as not all rooms remained in active use, the house was remodelled by architect John Gibbons and converted into two dwelling houses. Ancillary buildings have been converted into garages.