Coach House, Lochside House

Coach House, Lochside House

This is a substantial country house begun in 1858 in the manner of Burn and Bryce, with the tower and ancillary buildings added around 1862. The main house is 1½ to 2 storeys, multi-bayed and roughly square in plan, built in the manorial style with Scottish Jacobean details. It has pale sandstone ashlar facings over rubble whinstone walls, with a similarly styled single storey service wing set asymmetrically to the rear in harled whinstone rubble. The coach house and water tower adjoin the house, and a free-standing former stable block stands to the north. A rubble courtyard steading complex and cottage occupy the western part of the site.

The main house and service wing feature base, band and eaves courses in stone. Canted and squared bay windows have low moulded parapets. Gabled and pedimented wallhead dormers are finished with ball and stalk finials.

The north (entrance) elevation has an advanced gable to the left containing a projecting moulded door surround that rises into a stepped pediment with blind shield and corniced eaves. To the right of the entrance is a bipartite window with a central bipartite window to the first floor above, and a single window to the ground floor of the left return lighting the hall. To the right of the entrance is a squared bay window with 4 lights. A pair of asymmetrically placed stone wallhead dormers to the first floor have moulded pediments and ball and stalk finials. A single storey coach house adjoins to the right return, with a bipartite window to the gable of the main house above.

The east (garden) elevation is similarly styled with a reversed plan. An advanced gabled bay to the right contains a 3-light squared bay window to the ground floor and a bipartite window to the first floor. A canted bay window of the drawing room to the ground floor left has 3 central lights with single lights to the flanks, with a later piended roof. A pair of first floor dormer windows with pediments break the eaves above. To the gabled left return is a central moulded door surround with a timber door with glazed upper panel, with steps leading to the garden, and a central bipartite window to the first floor. A recessed bay to the left has a small window to the ground floor (denoting below stairs space) and a large bipartite window to the first floor lighting the staircase. The service wing adjoins to the left via an irregular 2-storey, 2-bay link.

The south (service) elevation is 1½ storeys with a 3-bay section to the right, formerly containing kitchens to the ground floor with nurseries above. This section comprises a central door accessed by later stairs, a bipartite window to the right and a single window to the left, with 3 regularly placed stone pedimented dormers to the half-storey. To the right return is a gabled end with a central window to the ground and first floors. To the left is a further advanced gabled bay with a central window at both storeys. A later advanced single storey flat link to the far left joins the service wing to the steading.

The west (courtyard) elevation forms the north and west facing L-plan courtyard, comprised of the irregularly fenestrated rears of the main house and service wing. A long later single storey piend-roofed porch occupies the re-entrant angle.

The principal ground floor rooms have plate glass glazing, while the first floor and rear of the main house and service wing have 8 and 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. The pitched Scotch slate roof has lead ridging and plain and moulded skew gables with scrolled and kneeler putts. Painted cast iron rainwater goods include some dated hoppers, with gutters cutting across some dormers. Tall coursed ashlar roofline stacks have projecting ashlar neck copes and elaborate cans. Gablehead and wallhead stacks to the office and service wing are of similar design but with plain cans.

The interior features an encaustic tiled floor to the entrance vestibule and original timber panelled doors with original hinges and door furniture. Timber skirting boards and oak shutters are fitted to the principal rooms, with the drawing room shutters and doors having a walnut paint effect and floral fittings including door furniture and bell push. Some curtain poles remain in place. Elaborate decorative plaster ceilings are found in the hall, dining room, study and drawing room, all with elaborate ceiling roses. Marble fire surrounds are fitted to the principal rooms, most with original over-mantle mirrors, while some later fire surrounds are present in the first floor bedrooms. A timber staircase with a carved octagonal newel post to the hall has turned balusters, with squared newels to the first floor. Cellars include one vaulted cellar and a wine cellar with slab shelves, with remnants of a service stair adjacent.

The coach house is a single storey building adjoining the west gable of the main house. It has bipartite leaded windows with diamond quarry panes to the north elevation and 2-leaf arched timber doors to the west.

The water tower is a 2-storey, square-plan structure rising to the northwest with a leaded bipartite window to the ground floor of the east elevation and an entrance door to the north. A small lean-to is attached to the west. The upper storey contains arched-top ventilation louvres with hoodmoulds and bracketed eaves. A slated pyramidal roof with bellcast eaves leads from the roof course, featuring slating with a band of fish scale detail and an emblem of a card suit to each face.

The former stables are a 2-storey gable-ended building with an arched entrance in the southwest elevation. Within the recessed wall is a central clock with a pair of semi-circular windows to the flanks. Windows flank the main elevation to the ground floor, with a pair of stone pedimented wallhead dormers to the first floor, and the rest of the elevation is largely blind. A grand hoodmoulded entrance doorway adjoins to the left of a formal southeast finialled gable end in ashlar with a hoodmoulded bipartite window to each floor, linking the elevation to the water tower. The northeast elevation is largely blank except for ventilation slits, though an advanced gable near the centre contains a window at each floor. A cart arch with 2-leaf timber gates projects from the right beyond the gable. A plainer southwest gabled end has paired windows to the ground floor and a single window to the first floor.

The lodge is a fairly simple single storey, T-plan piend-roofed structure with a later harled extension in the southwest re-entrant angle. The 3-bay entrance elevation to the northeast has a central door with an overhanging piended porch roof (supports currently missing) and lying-pane glazed windows to the flanks, with a window to each return. A central stack has a pair of plain cans.

The boundary features low curved ashlar walls with flat copes and chamfered angles. A pair of tall octagonal ashlar gatepiers flanks the driveway, with flat caps and banded mouldings. Identical piers mark the end of the formal wall. A higher whinstone rubble wall denotes the west boundary between the lodge and steading.

The steading and steading cottage form a late 18th and early 19th century complex of whinstone farm buildings with stone dressings and pitched slate roofs. All buildings have early rooflights, timber boarded doors and ventilators. The complex comprises a single storey F-plan whinstone range to the west with a long blind outer elevation partially inset into a bank and cart arches to the courtyard elevation. An irregularly fenestrated byre (still in use) forms the middle arm, though it is less intact to the southwest. A 1½-storey, 3-bay steading cottage adjoins to the north, facing into the courtyard and partially occupying the west range. An L-plan east range comprises a cart shed, byre and mill building with a decorative wrought-iron weather vane with cockerel surmounting the central gable, together with hayloft openings and timber doors. A further attached byre and hayloft to the southwest adjoins the service wing to the southeast via a single storey, semi-harled whinstone link.