Walled Garden, Ford House

Ford House is a 17th-century laird's house built in 1680 as a country residence for the Frasers of Lovat, the first owner being an Edinburgh lawyer. Designed in the French architectural style fashionable at the time, it is a 2-storey and attic structure built to an L-plan with an octagonal turnpike staircase set in the re-entrant angle. The walls are constructed of rubble, harled and painted in a rusty orange colour with grey flush window surrounds.

The principal north elevation features the octagonal turnpike staircase in the re-entrant angle, with the entrance door to the ground floor positioned to the right and a small window to the mid-floor serving the upper 2 storeys. The staircase is topped with an octagonal ogee slated roof surmounted by a gilded weather cock. A 2-storey single bay extends to the left flank and another to the right flank with a catslide dormer above. The gable end to the right displays a crowstepped gable with a harled stack topped by a stone neck cope and three plain terracotta cans. The 1680 date stone is set into the north gable of the wing. The eastern elevation shows a symmetrically placed 2-bay fenestration at ground floor level with a window to the first floor on the right, terminating in a crowstepped gable-end with harled gablehead stack, stone neck cope, and three plain terracotta cans. The south (rear) elevation displays a symmetrical 3-bay fenestration at ground floor level with outer bays to the first floor, a dovecote at the centre, and two modern Velux roof lights positioned off centre right with a small rooflight between. The west elevation features slightly irregular fenestration arranged in 3 bays at ground floor with a door to the right, and 3 bays to the first floor, terminating in a gable-end with an off-centre window and a crow-stepped gable-end with harled gablehead stack, stone neck cope, and three plain terracotta cans.

Windows throughout the main floors are of 4-pane, 12-pane and 16-pane white timber sash and case design. The roof is of piended graded Ballachulish slate with modern Velux roof lights to the rear elevation and a catslide to the dormer. Rainwater goods are modern white cast-iron replacements.

The interior retains considerable original features including panelling and shutters to the drawing room and bedroom above, original 2-panel 17th-century timber doors with brass rim locks, a black and white tiled fire surround, and an iron stair rail. The 17th-century panelling in the drawing room is said to have influenced Sir William Bruce's work at Holyrood. The roof of the stair tower formerly functioned as a large-scale dovecote with nesting boxes for a hundred pairs of birds.

The property is enclosed by a walled garden constructed of random rubble stone with stone copes. This garden contains the former stable courtyard and entrance courtyard, with an entrance gate to the north boundary and a south gate leading to woods. The walled garden formerly contained bee-boles and many fruit trees, of which only an apple tree and yew tree remained at the time of restoration. The fruit and vegetable garden has since been relocated to the side of the house, whilst the main garden was redesigned into terraces and lawns.

The house was built as a country residence but ownership was subsequently taken from the Fraser family due to their Jacobite connections. Bonnie Prince Charlie is alleged to have stayed here during his journey south in 1745. The house and lands were merged into surrounding estates and fell into chronic neglect during the 20th century. It was restored circa 1960 by Frank and Mary Tindall, at which time it was returned to its original rusty orange and grey colour scheme and many original features were preserved that might otherwise have been lost to modernisation.