Sunnybrae Lodge, Galasheils Road, Walkerburn

Sunnybrae Lodge, Galashiels Road, Walkerburn

Designed by F T Pilkington in 1868, Sunnybrae Lodge is one of an identical pair of single-storey entrance lodges with a distinctive lozenge plan and idiosyncratic Ruskinian and early Gothic style. The building features apsed ends and a triple-gabled entrance porch, with an attached L-plan single-storey, multi-gabled stable range enclosed by a gated wall.

The lodge presents a striking polychromatic appearance achieved through squared and textured whinstone rubble with tooled ashlar dressings, tabbed quoins to windows, and sculptured details. Features include ashlar cills and moulded wallhead band courses, sunk diamond panels with botanical motifs, and a pitched and bowed roof with bracketed eaves and foliate ball and spike finials.

The entrance or drive elevation features a central triangular gabled porch with a right-angled cant. The porch surround has arched shoulders with chamfered arrises and an advance sloped base course, containing a two-leaf timber boarded entrance door and a stylised floriate keystone. The roll-moulded and chamfered outer arrises lead to a gablehead with feather-edged skews terminating in floriate putts and a stylised fleur-de-lis finial. A similarly styled blind narrow gable occupies the centre, with an attached square ashlar gatepier featuring an advanced sloping base, squared shaft with chamfered upper angles, and corbels supporting stylised floriate caps. The left-hand canted gable is similarly styled with an ogee arch-headed window within an ashlar surround and sloped drip cill. Blind sides of the lodge flanking the entrance feature a central sunken diamond panel with a spiky botanical motif and a moulded eaves course.

The road elevation comprises the main bowed end to the right with paired bipartite windows, a blind original wall to the centre with three inset quatrefoil stones beneath plain wallhead coping, and the adjoining stables to the left with boundary wall to the extreme left.

The rear elevation contains a single storey section to the left.

The north elevation mirrors the south, with the main bowed end featuring paired bipartite windows to the left, a blind original wall with three inset quatrefoil stones to the centre, and the adjoining stable wall to the right.

The stable range forms a very high four-section whinstone block along the road elevation, due to the sloped nature of the site. It features tabbed ashlar quoins and a continuous band course. The first and third sections have similar design with blind bases and gabled bipartite wallhead dormers breaking the eaves, with feather-edged skews and shaped putts terminating in roll-moulded finials. Paired quatrefoil lights flank each dormer within squared ashlar stones. The second bay features a slightly advanced high gable with canted ashlar sections in lower re-entrant angles and paired windows to the gablehead with three vertically placed square lights flanking an advanced moulded geometric base containing a diamond motif panel. The fourth bay is similarly styled with a tripartite window near the gablehead.

The west elevation of the stables is blind and similarly styled.

The north elevation shows an L-plan single-storey stable block with regularly placed square-headed cart arches with paired timber doors to the main body. The arm extending north is now derelict and partially collapsed, resulting in loss of the original plan. The stables are enclosed by a whinstone wall running diagonally across the entrance with a pair of high square ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal caps and wrought-iron gates with dog bars. A further stepped wall continues up the hill toward Sunnybrae House.

The east elevation adjoins the west elevation of the lodge.

Glazing consists of plate glass in timber frames; an ogee arch-headed plate-glass window to the road elevation of the porch; leaded glass of diamond quarry remaining in some stable windows; and plain glass in quatrefoil lights. The pitched slated main roof features slated bowed ends and canted triple gabled porch. Lead ridging, flashings and valleys, along with lead foliate ball and spike finals at the ends of the roofline and to the rear apex of the gabled porch, complete the roofscape. A moulded cornice conceals painted cast-iron gutters, with downpipes concealed in the angle of the porch. Paired tall ashlar stacks occupy the centre of the roofline with swept bases, projecting stylised floriate neck copes, and hexagonal cans.

The interior of the lodge retains original timber work including working sets of panelled shutters and two-leaf timber boarded entrance and internal doors. The interior of the stables was not observed.

A tall squared whinstone rubble boundary wall extends east along Galashiels Road.