Dunesk, Green Lane, Lasswade

Dunesk is an earlier 19th-century, symmetrical, square-plan mansion built for a local landowner, Major Mowatt. The house is two storeys high with a basement. It has three bays to the front, with a bridging stair leading to the entrance on the first floor. The front façade is constructed from grey, finely-tooled ashlar sandstone, with polished ashlar dressings, while the rear is of squared rubble. A base course defines the ground floor, with panelled aprons and recessed arches to the windows. A moulded cill course runs along the ground floor, while raised cills are present on the first floor. A dentilled eaves cornice and a blocking course above the eaves features a central, raised panel with geometric incised decoration.

The principal, or south-east, elevation features a basement window in a slightly projecting central bay. The entrance is marked by an advanced doorpiece with engaged Doric columns, a frieze and cornice, a round-arched doorway, and a timber panelled door with flanking side lights and a semi-circular fanlight above. A tripartite window sits above the entrance on the first floor. Windows are positioned at each floor level in the flanking bays.

The north-west, or rear, elevation is symmetrical with three bays. Windows are present at each floor level in the central and left bays. A basement level window is located in the right bay, alongside a part-glazed door with a fanlight, approached by a decorative footbridge with wrought iron parapets and timber decking. A window is positioned above the door on the first floor.

The side elevations are also symmetrical, with three bays and windows at each floor level. A timber panelled door with a fanlight is located in the centre bay of the south-west elevation, at basement level.

The house has 12-pane timber sash and case windows, with stone mullions to the tripartite windows. The grey slate piended and platform roof incorporates a stair cupola. Ashlar coped wallhead stacks are positioned on the north-east and south-west sides, and cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted. A rectangular-plan, sandstone rubble outbuilding is situated to the west of the house, featuring modern garage doors and a grey slate piended roof.

Internally, the house has undergone considerable refurbishment, and original shutters and cornices remain. The entrance hall has a drip-moulded cornice with classical stucco details. A wrought-iron balustrade defines the central staircase, which is lit from above by an oval roof lantern. A control panel for the servant bell system is found in the kitchen.

The house and garden walls are now in good condition following refurbishment in the late 1980s, and the garden is gradually being replanted. Dunesk first appeared on the Ordnance Survey map of 1854.