Sunnybrae House, Galashiels Road, Walkerburn

Sunnybrae House, Galashiels Road, Walkerburn

Built in 1857 for David Ballantyne, Sunnybrae House comprises an original two-storey, three-bay traditional house with a later nineteenth-century addition. The complex blends a harled and painted original dwelling with stone dressings alongside a substantial villa extension, both displaying the architectural confidence of Victorian building practices.

The original house is rectangular in plan with an advanced gabled bay to the left and a single-storey chapel adjoining to the west. The southern principal elevation is anchored by a central entrance with painted stone margins, flanked by a bipartite window to the right. The left-hand gabled projection contains a distinctive tripartite ground-floor window with a wide central light and narrow side lights, above which sits a bipartite first-floor window. The gable terminates in a ball and spike finial. A further bipartite window sits centrally to the first floor, with another identical window to its right, surmounted by a gablehead with a now-blind narrow central window. Skew gables with moulded putts and fleur-de-lis or spike finials crown the composition.

The chapel is a single-storey stone structure aligned to the north-west, featuring a semi-glazed central entrance door on its south face, long bipartite windows with stone mullions to the flanks, and a blind slit window to the gablehead. A substantial stack rises from the wallhead to the east.

The later villa, adjoining and advancing to the right, is a substantial two-storey structure with an unusual entrance arrangement at its south-east corner. Here, a pair of sandstone shouldered surrounds with chamfered arrises and pediment, detailed with wreath and scroll work, form an open porch. A timber-panelled door sits within, accessed by a semi-circular flight of steps leading into an eastern surround. The south surround is enclosed by a balustraded and buttressed terrace. The principal elevation displays four bays, with two windows to the left of this corner entrance, followed by three regularly placed first-floor bays. To the left, an advanced stepped gable features a three-bay bow window to the ground floor, comprising a tripartite window with flanking single windows, crowned by heavy sandstone parapets. The first floor displays a tripartite window with an inset square stone to the gablehead containing quatrefoil detail, surmounted by a fleur-de-lis finial.

The western elevation of the villa displays a shaped gable with ground-floor and first-floor windows, the latter featuring a shaped angle arris with central window, all crowned by a stone gablehead.

The northern elevation reveals the full complexity of the composition. An advanced hipped end to the centre carries a ground-floor door to the right and a squared arched entrance to the left return, which displays three regularly placed first-floor bays. A flat-roofed bipartite dormer sits to the first floor right, with two roof lights to the left. Adjacent, a recessed Dutch-gable end contains a large round-arched staircase window to the first floor, comprising two round-arched lights with a central roundel surmounting. To the left, an arch-ended bay displays a ground-floor window left and paired first-floor bays.

The eastern elevation is particularly elaborate, featuring an advanced gable end flanked by semi-circular bows. The central gable contains a ground-floor window to the right. To its left, a three-bay bow window with bipartite central and flanking single windows extends to both storeys, with taller windows to ground level. To the right, an arched angle carries a stone bipartite window to the first floor with parapet rising from the lintel, continuing to meet the northern elevation.

Fenestration throughout reflects the period's development. The original house retains 8 and 12-pane timber sash-and-case windows, with 4-pane side lights to tripartite windows. The villa predominantly employs plate glass to its entrance elevations in timber sash-and-case frames, reverting to 8 and 12-pane glazing to the rear, with some multi-pane casement windows to rear attic dormers. Roof lights comprise a mix of original two-pane cast-iron Carron lights and modern examples. The chapel displays plate glass windows, while staircase windows contain stained glass with square quarries and decorative roundels.

The roofscape is complex and distinctive. Pitched and piened purple slate roofs cover the original house and villa, with the latter also featuring a Dutch-gable roofed section surmounting the staircase, a platformed extension, and a semi-conical roof to the bow window bay. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods survive, including barley-sugar downpipes to the villa's principal elevation. Tall coursed ashlar stacks with varying surviving cans rise from both buildings; the villa's stack echoes this treatment, whilst ashlar gablehead stacks feature moulded neck copes and are harled to their exterior elevations.

Internally, the later house displays generous proportions with high ceilings and ornate cornicing, some ceiling roses in plaster. Timber skirting boards and panelled doors, including a two-leaf entrance door, characterize the spaces. The entrance hall is tiled with panelled walls. A large inner hall contains a substantial timber open-well half-turn staircase with elaborately carved newel posts displaying elongated, stylised acanthus leaves terminating in decorated ball finials, and barley-sugar balusters with elaborately carved upper sections. The former chapel, adjoining the older house, is now converted to additional accommodation but retains its simple character.

All stonework displays painted sandstone angle margins, base course and window dressings, with painted harling to the walls themselves. The bracketed eaves to the later house reinforce its more formally ornamental character, distinguishing it clearly from the original nineteenth-century dwelling it adjoins.