Braeheads House, St Boswells

Braehead House, St Boswells

Braehead House is a three-storey, asymmetrical small country house designed by Francis W. Deas in 1905–06 in the Scottish Renaissance revival style. Set on high ground above and back from Main Street, the building imitates 16th and 17th century Scottish castle architecture on a domestic scale. It is constructed of roughly coursed, squared whinstone rubble with carved detailing in red sandstone.

The building is Z-shaped in plan and features a picturesque skyline with an array of Scots Baronial architectural details including corbelled and crowstepped gables, a turreted corner tower and bartizans, and finialled dormers breaking the eaves. The principal east elevation contains a recessed central bay with a large stone-mullioned window. The projecting north bay has curved corners with a crowstepped parapet. The deeply projecting south bay contains the main entrance, accessed via a flight of circular steps and featuring a recessed two-storey doorpiece topped by a double corbel course and a projecting garret chamber. The doorpiece has decorative carved surrounds with a foliated panel above the door and a pedimented architrave to the first floor window, which has Corinthian columns and a moon and stars motif in the tympanum.

The south elevation has gabled end bays, with the bay to the west projecting. A conical tower with a bell-shaped roof stands at the re-entrant angle; its base is corbelled out over an arched squinch. The upper floor of the remaining bays projects over a corbelled course. Ground floor windows are largely portholes with fixed lights and circular surrounds. An integral sundial in carved stone occupies the southwest corner.

The west elevation contains an open loggia within a segmental arch and a canted bay window with a parapet at first floor level extending to ground level. The north elevation has a two-storey carved window surround with decorative pillars and colonnettes, a laurel leaf to the apron, and a segmental pediment over the dormer. The gabled east bay deeply projects with rounded corners and a segmental moulding over the dormer featuring carved berries and foliage.

Window openings largely have flush ashlar rybats and cills in red sandstone, with whinstone voussoirs above. Basement window rybats are rock-faced. Dormer openings have raised ashlar margins with cavetto mouldings and a pole-moulded surround extending from the eaves. Glazing patterns are varied, largely in early timber sash and case windows. Roofs are steeply pitched with diminishing grey slate courses and stone ridges. Tall chimneystacks feature ashlar rybats, moulded copes and clay cans; those to the north, south and re-entrant northwest angle are wallheaded stacks with asymmetrical shoulders.

Braehead House, its ancillary buildings and garden grounds are enclosed by boundary walls of whinstone rubble with dressed sandstone coping and rybats. The entrance to the site is to the south from Main Street through a matching archway with timber and decorative metal gates and a pedestrian gate to the side. The decorative thistle motif on the gates was copied from that at Glamis Castle. The terraced garden has a linear red brick wall and parallel yew tree hedge, with spiral steps at the east end accessing the upper (north) and lower (south) gardens.

The stables, garage and engine house to the east are linked to the main house via an enclosed service courtyard. These ancillary buildings form a small U-shaped plan enclosing a small courtyard with a pend to the north. The north and east elevations are formed by boundary walls. The main entrance to the south is flanked by ashlar piers with tall pyramidal caps. The stables and garage to the west are single-storey, while the engine house to the east has an attic with gabled dormers (one of which is a loading door) breaking the eaves. The engine house has a pair of chimneystacks, oversized coiled skew putts and a turret with a conical roof to the northeast corner.

The interior of Braehead House retains much of the early 20th century layout with some minor alterations, including the insertion of an additional bathroom and removal of two windows and boarding-over of a service stair between ground and first floors. Many original features remain such as skirtings, architraves, fireplaces, doors, shutters, cornices, mouldings, in-built cupboards and shelves, and cast iron radiators.

The design is an early 20th century artistic interior inspired by the Scottish Renaissance period, designed by Scott Morton and Co in collaboration with Deas. Principal rooms are located at first floor level. In accordance with artistic house precepts, ceiling heights are varied and window openings are small and unique to each room. The first floor is accessed from the entrance porch in the southeast corner via a flight of steps with a groin-vaulted ceiling. A second stair to the centre of the east wing provides access between upper floors. This scale-and-platt timber stair has Renaissance-style balusters and a carved timber handrail.

The main hall to the centre of the south wing has timber panelled walls and a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The columned yellow marble fireplace was salvaged from Minto Manse. The drawing room to the west has a deep bay window; a former plaster frieze by J.S. Rhind is no longer in place (as of 2018). The conical tower at the re-entrant angle of the south elevation contains curved passages on each floor; that to the upper floor has a domed ceiling. An octagonal dining room is located to the north end of the east wing and has a shallow domed ceiling with ribs outlined in decorative plasterwork of foliage and summer flowers. The adjoining kitchen, which was once the butler's pantry, has been remodelled. The upper floor contains bedrooms and bathrooms with simple cornicing, coved ceilings and elegant timber fireplaces with marble trim and decorative cast-iron insets. Early 20th century tiles line the bathroom to the east wing.