Ettrick Lodge, Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk

Ettrick Lodge, Selkirk

Ettrick Lodge is a substantial Grade B listed house built in 1853, with later alterations by the architect David Rhind in 1870 and further modifications in 1979–80 including subdivision and the addition of a porch-cum-stairwell. The complex sits on steeply sloping ground and comprises three connected elements: the main house (a 3-storey, 3-bay Baronial building with basement), linked to two ancillary structures (a coach house at ground level and Ettrick Dene at basement level) by a 6-bay single-storey glazed arcaded section. The layout steps with the challenging topography to the northwest.

The main house is distinguished by its architectural detailing and varied facade treatments. A base course runs along the northeast of Ettrick Dene and the coach house, and along Ettrick Lodge itself. Stepping courses and band courses mark divisions between floors, and the building is topped with crowstepped gables. The southeast elevation, facing Ettrick Terrace, features a 3-bay composition with harled (rough-cast) finish to the centre except at ground level, where bull-faced sandstone with polished ashlar dressings appears. The flanking bays are harled at ground and first floor, with bull-faced sandstone and polished ashlar at second floor. A full-height gabled projecting bay to the centre displays an ashlar thistle finial, a boarded door with semicircular fanlight set within a round-arched rope roll-moulded margin, an ashlar shield, and a window at second floor. The bay to the right has windows on each floor; small round windows flank each at first and second floor. At third floor, a window breaks the eaves line, topped with a shield and ashlar rose finial. An engaged circular-plan 4-storey tower stands at the outer right, articulated with string courses between floors and a stepped corbelled course above the second floor, with a corbelled course at eaves height. The left bay has a window at ground level and a rope-moulded corbelled canted oriel at second floor with an ashlar sawtoothed roof set in the dormerhead and topped with an ashlar ball finial.

The linking section presents six round-arched windows with keystones. Ettrick Dene and the coach house, forming a 2-bay composition to the south, are constructed in bull-faced sandstone with droved ashlar dressings. A gabled projecting bay to the left features an ashlar ball finial and a round-arched opening (now glazed) at ground with a window above. Corbelled turrets flank this section—one to the outer right from lintel height of the ground floor, the other to the outer left from cill height of the first floor—each with a moulded eaves course. A shoulder-arched boarded door serves a lean-to addition in the re-entrant angle to the right, topped with a crowstepped half-gable. To the outer left, a window appears in a single-storey addition. A gabled bay to the right, set back with a small central window and a shield to the gablehead, features a rounded corner to the outer right corbelled to square.

The northwest elevation of the main house displays a window to each floor at centre, breaking the eaves at third floor with a crowstepped dormerhead bearing a shield and cast-iron finial. A datestone inscribed "WB 1853" and a shield flank the first-floor window. A canted 3-light 2-storey window occupies the bay to the right; a bipartite window appears at second floor, with a third-floor window breaking the eaves and surmounted by a dormerhead with ashlar ball finial. The bay to the left features a canted ashlar 3-light full-height window set in a gabled frame with a copper half-piended roof in the gablehead and ashlar ball finial.

The northwest elevation of Ettrick Dene and the coach house comprises four bays arranged as 2-1-1. A gabled 3-storey bay to the inner right displays a bipartite window at first floor and a window to the gablehead at second floor, with a corbelled turret to the right. An advanced 2-bay group occupies the left, with windows to each bay at basement and ground floor levels. A gable with a wallhead stack marks the centre. Corbelled turrets at the corners, each displaying a moulded eaves course and candlesnuffer roof, complete the composition.

Windows throughout are 6-pane timber sash and case to the main house and plate glass timber sash and case to Ettrick Dene. All roofs are slated; strip-glazing appears in the roof of the billiard room. Ashlar coped stacks rise from the main building, with wallhead stacks to side elevations. Dated rain-hoppers bearing the year 1870 are fitted to Ettrick Lodge.

The interior was not fully inspected at the time of survey in 1996, but the principal ground-floor room of Ettrick Lodge retains a white marble chimneypiece, gilded cornice, and fitted shutters.

The boundary wall consists of whinstone rubble with an ashlar coped top, enriched with foliate cast and wrought-iron railings, cresting, and finials surmounting dies. Two gateways serve the property. At the northeast end of the southeast wall, an ashlar gateway with bull-faced sandstone infill features a round-arched opening with boarded door and iron hinges, topped by a crowstepped gable. A second gateway to the northwest, accessed from Victoria Crescent, presents a round-arched opening with a shield above, set within a stepped whinstone rubble coped wall flanked by square-plan coped piers.