Stables And Groom's Cottage, Stainrigg House

Stables And Groom's Cottage, Stainrigg House

This complex comprises the main house at Stainrigg together with associated stable blocks, kennels, and service buildings. The principal house was erected in 1631 and substantially rebuilt by the architects Kinnear & Peddie in 1880, with subsequent additions and alterations. The whole ensemble is constructed of squared and snecked tooled cream and red sandstone rubble with cream sandstone ashlar dressings, partly droved. Detailing includes narrow quoin strips, stop-chamfered margins, and crowstepped gables characteristic of the Scots Baronial style.

The main house is an asymmetrical three-storey, five-bay structure with a two-storey Renaissance wing recessed to the left and a single-storey wing with attic (incorporating the original stables and groom's cottage) recessed to the right. Architectural features include architraved string courses in part, a moulded eaves course, sandstone mullions and transoms, and chamfered cills. The roofing is grey slate with crowstepped skews, beak skewputts, and iron rainwater goods. Various octagonal and circular chimney cans rise from coped apex and wallhead stacks.

The south-east (entrance) elevation presents a near L-plan composition with a projecting flat-roofed porch in the re-entrant angle to the left of centre, featuring a two-leaf timber panelled door flanked by pilasters and topped by a balustraded parapet with ball-finalled piers and a coat-of-arms beneath a round-arched pediment. A tripartite stair window sits at first-floor level behind the porch. An engaged conical-capped circular-plan tower occupies the re-entrant angle to the left. A full-height gabled bay projects to the outer left with single windows at ground and second floors and a bipartite at first-floor level with a decorative iron balcony. To the right, gabled bays contain ground-floor windows and first-floor windows to the left with corbelled sandstone brackets supporting a decorative iron balcony, and an armorial panel centred above the bipartite windows to the right. Bipartite windows sit beneath gableheads at second-floor level. The two-storey, three-bay Renaissance wing to the left features a segmental-arched loggia at ground level in two bays to the right, with bipartites aligned above, and an ogee-roofed square-plan tower slightly advanced to the outer left. A single-storey, three-bay range recessed to the right contains a door to the right and windows in two bays to the left. The single-storey range with attic and crowstepped gables to the outer right incorporates the stables and Little Stainrigg cottage.

The south-west (side) elevation comprises a two-bay block to the right with projecting tripartite windows at ground and first-floor levels (with sandstone brackets beneath the first-floor iron balcony and a modern spiral stair to the left), a single window at ground-floor level to the left, and a bipartite aligned at first floor. A single window breaks the eaves at upper level in a central wallhead gable, flanked by bipartites with ball-finalled gableheads. A two-storey ogee-capped tower projects to the left. An irregularly fenestrated two-storey, two-bay gabled wing recesses to the outer left.

The north-west (rear) elevation comprises a near U-plan arrangement. A flat-roofed single-storey addition sits at the centre of the ground level, with irregular fenestration above. A two-storey wing projects to the right, with a further two-storey wing advanced to the outer right and a flat-roofed addition on single piloti recessed to its left. An irregularly fenestrated full-height gabled wing projects to the left of centre. A single-storey service wing sits to the left. A U-plan stable courtyard advances to the outer left.

The north-east (side) elevation features a gabled bay to the left of centre with a stained window at ground level to the left and irregular fenestration to the right. A stained window sits at ground level to the outer left, with a dated plaque aligned at first-floor level. Projecting single-storey and single-storey-with-attic service and stable blocks occupy the outer right.

Windows throughout are furnished with plate glass in four-, six-, and eight-pane glazing set in timber sash and case frames.

The interior has been adapted for use as a conference centre. A timber-panelled vestibule with timber fireplace provides entry. The main reception rooms retain decorative cornices and original fireplaces. A dogleg stair features ball-finalled timber-panelled newels, barley-twist timber uprights, a timber handrail, and timber treads. Timber-panelled doors occur throughout, along with decorative plasterwork and various fireplaces. Original service bells remain in place.

The stables and Little Stainrigg cottage occupy a U-plan arrangement on the north-west (entrance) elevation. A four-bay range recesses at the centre with two-leaf boarded timber doors, plate glass fanlights, and single windows to the outer left and right. A two-leaf boarded timber door sits at an angle in the re-entrant angle to the right. A two-storey M-gabled wing projects to the outer right, with a single-storey wing to the projecting outer left (Little Stainrigg). The roof is of grey slate with pyramidal-capped louvred ridge ventilators, coped ridge and wallhead stacks, and circular cans. The stable interior retains boarded timber dado panelling, boarded timber stalls with ball-finalled iron newels, iron hay racks, and combed ceilings featuring circular-plan boarded timber hay shoots.

A detached single-storey kennel block occupies an L-plan at the rear. It is constructed of harl-pointed squared and snecked tooled sandstone rubble with stugged long and short dressings. The south-east (entrance) elevation comprises a single-storey-with-attic single-bay block to the left with a modern garage door at ground level and a single window aligned beneath the gablehead, and a single-storey two-bay wing recessed to the right with boarded timber doors in both bays. A coped rubble wall with ball-finalled iron railings encloses an exercise yard to the front, with a ball-finalled iron gate providing access. The roof is of grey slate with stone skews. The interior was not seen in 1998.

A cobbled courtyard occupies the rear area, enclosed by tall coped rubble walls. Square-plan gatepiers with tiered, ball-finalled caps flank the rear entrance, with a modern timber gate fitted between them.