South Lodge With Screenwalls And Piers, Ayton Castle

South Lodge with Screenwalls and Piers, Ayton Castle

This gate lodge was almost certainly designed by James Gillespie Graham around 1850, with later additions and alterations. It is an asymmetrical composition in Scots Baronial style.

The main structure comprises a near-square-plan, 2-storey entrance block with a segmental-arched pend flanking the drive at ground level. To the south-east corner is an engaged, 2-storey circular-plan tower, while the north-west corner features a larger engaged, 3-storey circular-plan tower with an attic storey. A single-storey wing adjoins the north-west side, with a lower single-storey addition beyond.

The building is constructed of squared and snecked tooled red sandstone with sandstone ashlar dressings. Features include a base course, moulded eaves (rope-moulded in part), corbelled and moulded eaves to the towers (with foliate frieze detail to the north-west), crenellated parapets, and crowstepped gables. Angles are stop-chamfered in part, with stugged quoins, stugged long and short surrounds to openings, roll-moulded margins, and flush cills. Crenellated screen walls are recessed to the outer left and right.

The south-west entrance elevation features the 2-storey entrance block offset to the right of centre, with a large 2-leaf boarded timber door at ground level having decorative iron hinges and a roll-moulded, segmental-arched surround with carved frieze. A single window in a small oriel is aligned at first floor with decorative carving to the corbelling. A coat-of-arms is centred in the crowstepped gable with a surmounting finial. The engaged south-east tower has small gun loops centred at ground and offset to the left at first floor, topped by a conical cap with tiered sandstone ridging and surmounting finial. The larger north-west tower features irregularly-spaced, round-arched windows at all floors, with a small attic light in a gabled and finialled dormer aligned above, corbelled detail beneath the eaves, and a decorative finial surmounting the grey slate conical cap. A single window is centred in the single-storey wing recessed to the outer left.

The north-east rear elevation has the entrance block offset to the left of centre with a large, segmental-arched pend opening at ground level featuring a roll-moulded surround with carved frieze, 2-leaf arched iron gates, and a 2-leaf boarded timber door set behind. Segmental-arched windows appear in both bays at first floor, with a coat-of-arms centred in the crowstepped gable and a surmounting stack above. A blind arrowslit is centred in the single-storey engaged south-east tower, with open bartizans to both corners at upper floor. A single window is centred in the single-storey wing adjoined to the right with open bartizans to each corner adjoining the entrance block to the left. A single window appears in the lower single-storey wing projecting to the outer right.

Windows predominantly feature 8- and 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case frames. The roofs are of grey slate with crowstepped skews. Corniced apex stacks and various cans are present, with prominent sandstone water spouts and some cast-iron rainwater goods.

The interior of the pend features a part-glazed, boarded timber door centred in the north-west elevation, a blind segmental-arched alcove to the south-east, and a ribbed, depressed-arch vault. The remainder of the interior was not seen at the time of survey in 1998.

The associated screen walls and piers comprise squared and snecked tooled red sandstone curved screen walls flanking the gate lodge with regularly-spaced arrowslits and crenellated parapets. Square-plan, coursed red sandstone piers to the outer left and right have corbelled and tiered, shallow pyramidal caps.