Mountview, Teindhillgreen, Duns

Mountview is a large, mid-19th century Jacobethan villa situated on Teindhillgreen, Duns, built in an L-plan with a small, attached L-plan service court. The villa is constructed of stugged cream sandstone ashlar with polished dressings, featuring a prominent three-stage square entrance tower. A base course, band course above the ground floor, moulded eaves, long and short raised quoins, and regular fenestration characterize the exterior. Windows have buckle tabs, with those on the first floor breaking the eaves with gabled dormerheads and curvilinear gables topped with finials.

The west-facing (entrance) elevation showcases the central entrance tower and a broad, blank gabled bay to the right, featuring a projecting wallhead stack and strapwork cresting at the band course and three cans. A single-storey bay extends to the left, with a gable facing north, and a set-back garden range behind, incorporating a two-bay gable to the left, blind windows on both floors, and a staircase window to the right.

The entrance tower is exceptionally elaborate, with an engaged inverted tapering square column doorpiece, fan capitals, an entablature with a decorated frieze and blind fretted parapet with piers and finials. The doorway itself has a roll-moulded basket arch with a keystone, panelled doors, and a letterbox fanlight. The second stage of the tower features a basket-arched bipartite window to the west and a rectangular window to the north, topped by an entablature. The third stage contains round-headed bipartite windows, corner pilasters, a blind fretted frieze, a heavy cornice, a blind fretted parapet with a cartouche at the center to the west, a lead ogee roof and finial.

The south elevation is three bays wide, with ground floor windows having basket arches, roll-moulded arrises, and projecting ashlar frames, each with a cornice, pierced parapet, and urn finials. A gabled right bay is slightly advanced with a tripartite window at ground level, a first-floor window with a cornice and cresting, and a blank shield in the gablehead. A canted window is present in the centre bay.

The east elevation also has three bays. A blank, gabled bay that was previously advanced (the stack has been removed) now contains a doorway at ground level. A window is present at ground level, with small windows on both faces at the first floor, in the re-entrant angle.

The north elevation is characterized by three bays to the left, with first-floor windows featuring triangular gables. Later links have been added at ground level. Two bays are set back to the right, with windows in the re-entrant angle and a half gable abutting the tower. A projecting single-storey gable is located at ground level, with the tower above.

The attached service court, to the north, is an irregular two-bay block, with first-floor windows breaking the eaves with gabled dormerheads and finials. Gables face east and west, with gabled single-storey additions to the west and linking section, the walls being harled with reconstituted stone dressings. Later windows are incorporated into this section.

Original timber sash and case windows remain, featuring plate glass, four-pane, and twelve-pane configurations. Grey slates cover the roof, complemented by ashlar coped skews and corbelled skewputts. Corniced linked octagonal ashlar apex stacks are prominent features.

The interior has been significantly altered and now serves institutional purposes.

Ashlar gatepiers with chamfered base angles, cornices, and ball finials (resited and truncated) mark the entrance to the service court. A rubble boundary wall with ashlar coping is present, with a later wall extending to the east.