Manorhead Hotel, 168 Galashiels Road, Stow

The Manorhead Hotel, located at 168 Galashiels Road, Stow, is a substantial former coaching inn dating largely to 1819, with alterations made in 1852. It occupies a corner site and is constructed of coursed and squared dark whinstone, with cream sandstone ashlar dressings. The building is two storeys high, with an attic and basement, and features a break-fronted road elevation and a lower, piend-roofed wing with outshots on falling ground to the southwest. There is a detached single-story former stable to the northwest, and a vehicular gateway with ashlar piers to the east, with a garden to the south.

The east, or road, elevation is three bays wide and exhibits cill and eaves courses. The central bay is slightly advanced and features a lintel course at ground level; it contains a tripartite window above, surmounted by a blocking course. The north, or entrance, elevation has a central doorway with a four-pane fanlight and mullioned sidelights. A blind window is situated to the left on the first floor, and there is a single attic window on both the north and south gables. The south, or garden, elevation incorporates a forestair at basement level, rising to the first floor with cast-iron railings; the tall first-floor windows have decorative cast-iron balconies to the left and central bays.

The southwest wing is lower and narrower, comprising a two-storey, three-bay section of whinstone rubble with a half-piended roof. A later 20th-century covered external staircase provides access to a first-floor flat. Further west is a single-storey, piended section with an outshot entrance porch at the northwest angle.

The detached stables cottage is a single-story building with an attic, built of random whinstone rubble with raised ashlar window dressings and irregular fenestration, featuring two pitched dormers on the courtyard elevation.

Inside, the hotel features patterned floor tiling in the vestibule and a glazed partition screen leading to a spacious entrance hall, which has a polished flagstone floor. A stone staircase incorporates cast-iron banisters, a timber handrail, and a plasterwork frieze decorated with garlands and swags. Rooms at attic level have four timber-panelled box-beds within the eaves. A large, multi-roomed cellar includes areas with stone wine bins.

The building predominantly features 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows, with some plate-glass sections. The main principal section has a slated jerkin roof with stone skews; broad gable-end stacks are present, along with tall, thin wallhead stacks on the west side and southwest wing. Clay cans are fitted, along with cast-iron rainwater goods.

Coped rubble boundary walls enclose the corner site. Square-capped ashlar gatepiers, surmounted by lanterns, mark the northeast boundary, and a wrought-iron pedestrian gateway leads to decorative iron railings fronting the east elevation. A further vehicle entrance is located in the west wall.