Dundarach Hotel, Perth Road

Dundarach Hotel, Perth Road

Built in 1866 and converted to a hotel in 1994, with minor alterations made circa 1910 probably by John Leonard. The building is a single and two-storey, six-bay gabled house with a four-stage pavilion-roofed tower. It features fretwork bargeboarding and delicate cast-iron brattishing. The walls are constructed in squared and snecked rubble with ashlar dressings, a rock-faced raked base course, and a string course stepped at intervals. The openings have pointed and segmental heads, with corbels, chamfered reveals, and stone mullions.

The north-west entrance elevation includes the tower positioned in the penultimate bay to the left, with a flat-roofed single storey conservatory-type extension projecting to the right. This obscures a wide centre tripartite window below a gabled bay with a raised centre tripartite stair window featuring coloured and leaded glazing inscribed with 'MON ROY MON LOY MON DOY'. A stone porch is set in the re-entrant angle to the left, infilled with modern doors and a further blocked pointed-arch opening on the return to the left, all beneath a brattished slate roof and a single dormer-headed window. An advanced wing to the right of centre has an M-gable to the left, with a first floor containing tiny paired windows at the centre and flanking single windows, a flat-roofed extension at ground level to the left, and a gabled extension with a door and narrow light to the ground right. The return to the left has two dormer-headed windows above a later conservatory. Three bays beyond to the right feature a flat-roofed extension at ground level and three dormer-headed windows at the first floor.

The tower is an advanced structure, engaged at the first and second stages in the penultimate bay to the left of the north-west elevation. The first stage contains a moulded pointed-arch opening over a bipartite window with a central cushion-capitalled nookshaft and a blind panel on the tympanum. A stepped string course above incorporates the corbelled base of a wide-centred three-light oriel window with an attenuated slated polygonal roof at the second stage. The third stage has three narrow lights to the north-west, a corbelled base of a spired small polygonal tower with a roundel projecting to the south-west, the base of a corbelled stepped stack to the north-east, and a roof pitch to the south-east. A deep corbel table leads to the fourth stage with a bellcast roof, a small jerkinheaded dormer window to the north-west, an almost full-height finialled spire of an engaged polygonal tower to the south-west, and a broad stack to the north-east. The pavilion roof is crowned with decorative cast-iron brattishing and finials.

The south-east elevation has four advanced bays to the right with a wide centre canted three-light window to the outer right, corbelled over outer angles to a bipartite window at the first floor with a carved panel in the gablehead. A flat-roofed single storey extension spans three bays to the left with a bipartite window to the first floor of the gabled bay matching that to the right, and two small dormer-headed windows at the centre. Recessed bays to the left sit over steeply falling ground with a raised basement, a wide centre tripartite window with a relieving arch positioned off-centre left, and a narrow light to the right. Two dormer-headed windows occupy the first floor with a further narrow light to the right.

The north-east elevation features a gabled bay with a single storey flat-roofed extension projecting to the right of centre, and a small corbelled oriel window with nookshafts at the first floor. A slightly advanced gable to the left of centre has a hoodmoulded pointed-arch bipartite window at ground level, a single window above, and a shielded panel in the gablehead.

The south-west elevation presents a variety of elements to an irregular elevation, including a deeply recessed gable to the centre partly obscured by a broad gabled bay to the right at ground level, falling steeply to the right to form a raised basement with a boarded timber door at the centre, a window to the right at ground floor, and a pointed arch to the left leading to a loggia with a further arch on the return to the left. Two further windows occupy the first floor.

Windows throughout are of four-pane and plate glass glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows, with coloured glass to the stair window. The roof is covered in grey slates. Grouped polygonal ashlar stacks are prominent features. The overhanging eaves incorporate fretwork bargeboarding, decorative cast-iron finials, and brattishing, complemented by cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers and fixings.

The interior retains a good decorative scheme including decorative plasterwork cornicing and stylised door architraves. A timber dog-leg staircase features elaborate newel finials and balusters. The stair window contains coloured and leaded glazing with a crest and the inscription 'MON ROY MON LOY MON DOY'.

An ancillary building of rectangular plan with piended slated roof is constructed in rubble. It features a segmental-headed bipartite window breaking the eaves into a dormerhead to the north-west, a timber door to the south-west, a tall shouldered chimney stack to the south-east, and a finialled piended lantern with four lights to each elevation at the roof apex. This building was formerly possibly a billiard room.

Coped ashlar polygonal gatepiers mark the entrance to the property.