Holylee House

Holylee House is a 2-storey Georgian mansion with attic and basement, built in 1827 by the architectural partnership of John and Thomas Smith of Darnick. It stands on an attractive hillside overlooking the Tweed on the west bank of Holylee Burn. The house was commissioned by James Ballantyne of Old Holylee following his marriage to Anne Henderson in 1821. A rear extension was added circa 1923 by R Carruthers Ballantyne (of the architectural practice Ballantyne and Taylor, Inverness), who inherited the property through William Laidlaw Ballantyne, factor at Abbotsford.

The house is rectangular in plan with five bays. Its principal elevation faces south and is constructed of polished ashlar with giant angle pilasters. The south elevation features six ashlar steps with plain wing walls leading to a tetrastyle Ionic entrance portico. The central timber panelled door is crowned with an inset stone carved with the initials JBAH and the date 1827 in gothic script, with a border-glazed fanlight above. Two regularly placed windows flank the portico. The first floor contains five regularly placed bays; the central bay is advanced and pedimented with a recessed apex stack surmounting it. To the attic, a flat-roofed dormer is aligned with the three central bays.

The east elevation displays five regularly placed bays across basement, ground and first floors. Bays four and five are later additions, separated from the original house by a giant pilaster. A small circular window between bays two and three lights the staircase at ground and first floor levels. Paired wallhead stacks rise between bays two and three, with five flat-roofed attic dormers aligned with bays two to five.

The north (rear) elevation is L-plan in form. The left side features an advanced bay with a window to the first floor right and a wallhead stack to the left with an attic dormer above the first floor window. To the right, the rear of the main house contains three windows to the ground and first floors on the left; a giant pilaster with a fourth bay to the right. A bipartite attic dormer surmounts to the left of the pilaster. The basement is partially concealed behind a coursed whinstone rubble yard wall, but a single-storey square extension occupies the re-entrant angle. A lean-to outhouse adjoins the north elevation of the enclosed yard wall, with a door in the west elevation.

The west elevation presents five regularly placed bays across basement, ground and first floors. The basement contains a semi-blind window to the fifth bay; ground floor windows are taller. Paired wallhead stacks linked by a raised parapet span bays two to four, with attic dormers aligned with bays three and four.

The construction throughout employs polished ashlar to the principal facade, with the north wing finished in harled rubble with dressed margins. Architectural detailing includes a base course, cill courses to ground and first floors, and a dividing band between ground and first floors, all surmounted by a blocking course. Windows are fitted with 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case frames; basement and first floor windows on the west elevation have 6-pane and 15-pane glazing respectively. The roof is finished in piended and platformed grey slate with lead flashing; flat-roofed dormer windows are inserted with slate cheeks. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods are throughout.

The interior features a tessellated stone floor to the main halls of the ground floor, which are ornamented with Greek key and ovolo moulded cornicing and corbelled arches crossing the hall. The formal stone open-well dogleg staircase has painted wrought-iron triple balustrades with ornate scrolled central balustrades and plain bars to the flanks. Some principal rooms retain Adam style fire-surrounds.

The original internal arrangement placed the drawing room to the west and morning room to the east of the front, with these rooms opening off a T-plan entrance hall from which the formal stone staircase rises to the centre of the east elevation. A lesser spiral stair and service rooms occupied the north-east corner, leading down to basement kitchens and the rear yard. A panelled dining room was located in the north-west corner. The first floor was principally devoted to bedrooms.

An ashlar terrace wall adjoins the south side of the house, running west to east and dividing the drive (running north to south) from the garden to the west. The wall features an advanced chamfered base course and matching quoins, with squared ashlar piers bearing cushion caps at the angles.

The house remains in use as a private residence.