1-4 Linnkeith And Linnkeith Cottage, Balmoral Road, New Rattray

1-4 Linnkeith and Linnkeith Cottage, Balmoral Road, New Rattray

A single and two-storey, four-bay, L-plan gabled house designed by Glasgow architect John Honeyman in 1862, with Tudor detailing. The building was converted to flats in the mid-1980s. It stands on a raised base with band and eaves courses, constructed in rubble with ashlar quoins, raised quoin strips and margins.

The main house features pointed-arch and tracery-effect windows throughout, with hoodmoulds and some raked cills. Windows incorporate stone transoms and mullions in 4- and 6-pane glazing patterns in timber sash-and-case windows, alongside timber sash-and-case effect lying-pane double glazing. The roof is covered in grey slates with shouldered, coped ashlar stacks topped with cans. Eaves are overhanging with plain bargeboarding.

The entrance elevation presents a re-entrant angle to the left of centre, with a crenellated porch containing a small bipartite window and a moulded, pointed-arch doorway with deep-set timber door, both set beneath a continuous hoodmould. A single shouldered-arch window breaks the eaves into a dormerhead above. A broad bay to the left of centre carries a hoodmoulded pointed-arch window at first floor. An advanced M-gable to the right of centre contains a small trefoil-headed light at ground level and a hoodmoulded transomed and mullioned tracery-effect stair window above to the left, with a further window matching the first-floor outer left design to the first floor right. A single-storey pitch-roofed wing projects from the right gable with tracery-effect door, window and trefoil opening on its gabled left return. An adjoining screen wall (leading to a small courtyard) features a broad two-leaf pointed-arch door with stepped pediment and flanking trefoil-headed windows to its outer left angle.

The west elevation displays two recessed bays at the centre with windows to each floor; first-floor windows break the eaves into swept dormerheads. Broad advanced outer gables frame the composition—that to the right contains a French window at ground and a single window at first floor, whilst that to the left is canted with a polygonal roof. A single-storey bay, slightly set back to the outer right, has a panelled timber door to the centre and full-height windows in flanking bays.

The north elevation features a broad bay to the right of centre with a part-glazed door and deep fanlight at ground level, above which a band course gives way to a single window breaking the eaves into a swept dormerhead. Two windows occupy each floor to the left, with those at first floor being larger.

The south elevation shows a bay to the left of centre with a projecting single-storey wing displaying a dominant stepped chimney breast that pierces the gablehead into a polygonal stack, flanked by large windows. The return to the right has a blocked door at the centre and flanking tracery-effect windows. A set-back face to the right carries a ground-floor window and a first-floor window breaking the eaves into a dormerhead.

The interior contains good decorative schemes including decorative plasterwork cornices and ceiling roses with architraved surrounds and panelled timber shutters. The stairhall features a coved ceiling, cantilevered dog-leg staircase, fretwork panelling and ball-finalled newel posts. The first-floor drawing room displays a fine coved ceiling with decorative plasterwork and a white marble fireplace. A black marble fireplace occupies the former ground-floor dining room. The stair window has top-opening and fixed lights.

Linnkeith Cottage adjoins Linnkeith House at the east. Its west elevation contains an advanced gable to the left of centre with a raised centre tracery-effect tripartite window set beneath a stepped hoodmould and an arrowslit in the gablehead. Set-back bays to the right have a door to the left and a window to the right, both deeply set into tracery-effect openings. A later flat-roofed bay has been added to the outer left. The north elevation displays a lower bay projecting at the right with a window to the left and broad flat-roofed slate-hung dormer windows (single and bipartite) above. The east (rear) elevation comprises a variety of elements including altered windows and a small piend-roofed louvered roof ventilator.