Croftweit, 10 Strathearn Terrace, Crieff

Croftweit, 10 Strathearn Terrace, Crieff

Possibly designed by Robert Ewan of Glasgow and dated 1862, this is a tall 2-storey house with attic and basement, arranged over 5 bays with gothic detailing. The building sits on ground that falls away to the southwest. It is constructed from squared rubble with contrasting ashlar dressings, and features a raised base with string and corbelled eaves courses.

The principal northeast elevation is the most ornate. Slightly set-back centre bays are approached by steps flanked by dwarf walls, leading to a moulded doorcase that corbels out to a piended pitched roof with cross-detailed cornice. The door itself is broad and panelled with flanking lights over panelled aprons and a 3-part fanlight set into the depth of the corbelling. Large windows occupy the flanking bays, with two further windows at first floor positioned towards the centre, breaking the eaves into a steeply pitched pediment. This pediment features a carved cross in a recessed panel, and a larger central panel with a blind shield and entwined date '1862'. To the left is a gabled bay at ground floor containing a wide centre tripartite window with a cross-carved panel. Above this, a narrower advanced section at first floor contains a single shouldered window below a cross-detailed cornice and piended swept roof. To the right of centre sits a lower projecting gable with a bipartite window at ground level, a single window above, and a glazed trefoil in the gablehead; the outer angles are chamfered and corbelled. The basement has a variety of openings.

The southeast elevation displays steep ground fall to the left. A door and flanking small windows sit to the right at basement level, with windows on each floor above; the first-floor window breaks the eaves as on the principal elevation. A slightly advanced gable to the left features a full-height canted bay. At basement, this bay has a central window, a blocked opening to the right, and a squat buttress with battered cap to the left. Canted windows occupy each floor above, with the ground-floor example flanked by slender capped buttresses in the re-entrants.

The southwest rear elevation contains 4 bays with a raised basement. Two windows occupy each floor of the set-back centre bays. Those at basement are small and square with an additional tiny centre light, while those at first floor break the eaves as on the principal elevation. An advanced gable to the right echoes the southeast gable but with flanking squat buttresses at basement. A further gable to the left has a door to the right at raised basement level and a blocked opening to the left, with 2 windows at ground floor and a single window at first floor.

The northwest Mitchell Street elevation is asymmetrically fenestrated with various elements, including a gabled porch with a door on its return to the left and a first-floor window breaking the eaves.

Throughout the building, openings are characterized by pointed and shoulder-arched forms with stone mullions and chamfered reveals. Glazing consists of 4-pane and plate glass patterns in timber sash-and-case windows. The porch features coloured leaded Art Nouveau glazing, and fine coloured margined glazing adorns the windows flanking the northeast door. The roof is covered in graded grey slates with diamond-pattern detailing to the porch and canted windows. Tall grouped, banded and shouldered ashlar chimney stacks, some with carved detail, rise from the building. Skews are stepped ashlar-coped with moulded and gablet skewputts and decorative gablehead finials.

The interior contains decorative plasterwork cornicing and ceiling roses throughout, with panelled soffits featuring cross-detail. Some rooms retain dado rails and panelling. The vestibule has a tiled mosaic-patterned floor. The stairhall features a top-lit dog-leg staircase with enclosed balusters, a moulded timber handrail, and newel posts with trefoil-detailed finials, all housed beneath a pitched 10-light cupola. The principal ground-floor room displays a deep decorative frieze incorporating the monogrammed letters 'AR'. A further staircase features decorative cast-iron balusters.

Boundary walls are constructed from rubble with semicircular coping. Polygonal ashlar gatepiers have pyramidal coping and are accompanied by decorative ironwork gates attached to square-plan gatepiers.