The Glen

David Bryce designed this substantial Scottish Baronial mansion in 1854-1855, with an additional tower added by Bryce in 1874. Following a fire in 1905, Robert Stodart Lorimer undertook partial interior alterations and created the garden terrace. The house comprises two to three storeys with attic and basement, following what became known as Bryce's plan type A. The main house features a Maybole entrance tower and a partially concealed Winton tower at its centre, with the later six-storey Aberdeenshire-style tower house added to the south. A one and a half storey, multi-bay, rectangular-plan service wing in the Scots Baronial style adjoins to the northeast.

The building is constructed of coursed cream sandstone ashlar from Deepskyehead Quarry. Windows are stone-mullioned with chamfered arrises on the earlier work and moulded arrises on later additions. String courses run horizontally across the facades, with a moulded eaves course. The roofline is characterised by crow-stepped gables with moulded kneeler putts, tourelles (small circular towers), and ornate pedimented dormers topped with decorative finials.

Northwest (Entrance) Elevation

The entrance elevation presents an irregularly massed composition. The projecting entrance tower features a Renaissance doorway based on Cullen House in Moray, with moulding incorporating a heraldic plaque inscribed "BLISSET BE GOD FOR ALL HIS GIFTIS" and "THEY AR WELCOME HERE QVHA THE LORD DO FEIR". An aedicular-framed window occupies the first floor, with a small window below a corbelled Maybole oriel. The gablehead is crowned with a lion at its apex.

To the left of the tower sits a recessed section with irregular fenestration, terminating in a pepperpot angle turret and pedimented dormer. To the right, an irregularly fenestrated block contains tall diagonally-placed tripartite windows lighting the hall and stairs, with four pedimented dormers breaking through a corbelled parapet.

The family quarters block advances to the far right, featuring a crowstepped gable, pedimented dormers, and a pepperpot angle turret. This section incorporates a panel reading "David Bryce, Architect AD 1855" with Corinthian column detail. A single-bay gable corbels out from a round, full-height pepperpot tower in the re-entrant angle. The separately listed garden terrace adjoins the family quarters.

Northeast (Service Wing) Elevation

The return of the main house appears to the left, with a corbelled angle turret adjacent to a two-storey projecting squared bay containing a large tripartite window lighting the dining room. This bay terminates in a ball-finialled parapet, with a wide attic dormer aligned with a chimney stack to the left. A narrow basement window to the right has an aligned pedimented dormer breaking the eaves.

To the right, the gabled end of the entrance tower features a service wing link at ground floor level. Paired windows occupy the first floor with smaller aligned windows at the second floor. Above, a pair of pepperpot angle turrets flank a corbelled sham balustraded walkway from which rises a large wallhead stack. The taller Winton tower rises behind, with a corbelled balustraded parapet and a corner tower rising to the east, surmounted by a decorative weathervane finial.

Service Wing

The one and a half storey, multi-bay, U-plan Baronial service wing sits on a sloped site. It formerly incorporated offices, game larder, kitchen, and scullery, and was undergoing renovation by Simpson and Brown in 2002. The wing links to the house through balustraded walls which partially conceal the connection.

The southeast elevation has a central entrance door with a bipartite pedimented dormer aligned above. Half-storey slit windows appear to the right, with a single misaligned bay to the left featuring a crowstepped gable with an attached servant bell tower. A conical tower adjoins a wall (containing a single window) to the left, linking to the house. To the right of the door, an advanced gabled end has a bipartite window at lower ground floor and a tripartite window at first floor.

The U-plan courtyard on the northeast elevation shows a regular three-bay gabletted return of the wing to the left, a wall with courtyard entrance at centre, and a projecting two and a half storey crowstepped gable end with tourelle to the right. The northwest elevation is broken by a bridge and courtyard entrance at centre. A projecting single-storey, single-bay, gable-ended block within the courtyard features corbelled battlemented tourelles with trefoil gun-loop detail, an entrance door with window to the left, and a stepped hoodmould above.

Adjoining to the right, a single-storey link to the house has a balustraded parapet broken by a central bipartite window. An arched pediment above this window contains a carved David Bryce, Architect panel with Corinthian column.

Southeast (Garden) Elevation

The near-symmetrical original house appears to the right, with a central tripartite window at ground floor. A heraldic family panel is inset into the stepped string course above the central light. Three regularly placed pedimented dormers above break through the eaves. The flanking sections have higher gabled ends with projecting canted bays at centre that corbel out into squared gableheads, with angle turrets at the outer flanks.

To the left, the 1874 tower features an oversized canted bay at ground floor, three regularly placed bays at first floor, and a central heraldic panel inset above. Half-storey narrow bays occupy the outer flanks. A corbelled-out attic storey has three pedimented dormers breaking a sham parapet and terminating in squared angle turrets.

The later garden terrace partially conceals the regular basement fenestration and leads to the ground floor. The lower terrace has a balustraded retaining wall and a central flight of semi-circular steps flanked by urn-finialled piers. The upper terrace leads to a nine-bay segmental-arched balustraded Renaissance arcade, with its centre aligned with the left gable of the original house and projecting forward. The upper walk is accessed by quarter-turn balustraded ashlar staircases with half-landings sited at the outer flanks.

Southwest Elevation

To the left, the irregularly massed and fenestrated family wing comprises a two-bay crowstepped gable with a central canted bay window at ground floor and an angle turret at upper floor. A projecting single-bay gable to the right corbels out from the round, adjacent to a single bay to the right. The original wing terminates in a full-height canted bay with pedimented dormers decorated with emblems from the family coat of arms at upper level, breaking the eaves and terminating in a semi-conical or platformed roof.

Adjoining to the right, the 1874 tower has a central bipartite window at basement level inset into the corbelling of a projecting five-light canted bay window at ground floor. At first and second floors, two regularly placed windows of varying size appear. Above, a corbelled-out sham parapet walk terminates in squared angle turrets. A pair of windows is partially obscured by the parapet, with a single window in the crowstepped gablehead. The fairly plain left return to the tower features a plain moulded panel in the gablehead with squared angle turrets flanking.

Windows and Roof Details

The timber sash and case windows contain two, four, six, eight, and twelve panes of glazing. The very tall tripartite hall and stair windows have twenty-one and twenty-four pane glazing. Basement windows have three-pane glazing with single-pane upper sashes. Originally all windows were apparently plate glass, but this was changed by the second Lord Glenconner around 1920, who did not approve of the Baronial style.

The pitched slated roof has stone ridging and lead flashing and valleys. The corner turret of the Winton tower has an ogee slated roof. Tourelles have fish-scale slated conical roofs, and turrets have pyramidal slate roofs with slightly swept eaves. Some timber and glazing atrium-style roof lights occupy the centre of the roof. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout. Very high ashlar roofline, wall, and gablehead stacks range from one to five plain cans.

Interior

Bryce designed a symmetrical suite of rooms along the garden terrace, but fire damaged the original interior in 1905. Lorimer created an entrance vestibule with metal hand-railed stairs leading into an arcaded Bryce hall and billiard room. Lorimer added vine-patterned cornicing borrowed from Kellie Castle in Fife to hide steel beam casings.

Lorimer also designed Gothic timberwork, ornate ceilings, and cornices hand-moulded by Thomas Beattie. The dining room ceiling's central panel features seashells and cornucopias surrounding a central roundel, with a fruit and flower border throughout. Lorimer's oak library includes a Renaissance chimneypiece with animal-bracketed shelving. The timberwork was executed by Scott Morton & Company.

The 1854 and 1874 linked drawing rooms were redecorated classically by Lengons in 1925, with a chimneypiece featuring Ionic jambs and fret frieze dating from this period. In the 1930s, Syrie Maugham removed the partition from the stairs and hall, designed a large sitting room from already altered rooms incorporating a 1919 chimneypiece from the Walnut Room, redecorated several bedrooms, and lowered some ceilings.

An oak newel pelican stair leads to the bedrooms. The Green Room has a coved ceiling and vine decoration, with green based on colours used to decorate Wemyss ware pottery. The Zodiac Room features a rose ribbed ceiling and carved zodiac signs on the walls. The Hunting Room, located in the Maybole tower and formerly the smoking room, was decorated in red and blue Italian style with game birds by Purdie and Thomas Bonnar, Junior, in 1893.