West Steading Range, Sand Lodge

Sand Lodge is a country house with extensive grounds, comprising a complex late 18th to late 19th century main house, walled garden with folly and glasshouses, substantial steading buildings with cottage, doocot, sundial, and comprehensive boundary walls with gates. The principal residence shows several phases of development: a late 18th century (possibly incorporating earlier work) and early 19th century two-storey and attic over concealed basement cruciform-plan core, with its present principal three-bay elevation facing north; the south jamb of this core was extended southward with a two-storey, two-bay parapetted wing; a mid 19th century single storey over basement bow-ended drawing room wing infills the re-entrant angle to the west, with a late 19th century single storey smoking room wing extending southwest from the west elevation. The walls are harled with droved sandstone ashlar margins to openings, stugged sandstone ashlar dressings elsewhere, and a brick dentilled eaves course.

The north (principal) elevation is symmetrical with an advanced and gabled centre bay. A forestair rises to a margined and corniced entrance door at the principal floor, with glazed upper panels to the four-panel timber door and a five-pane fanlight above. The centre bay is blank at first floor level. Regular fenestration appears at each floor of the side elevation, with small basement windows and cat-slide dormers breaking the eaves at attic level. Windows are centred in the outer bays, whilst smaller windows at first floor are offset closer to the centre of the elevation.

The west elevation is asymmetrical, with the two-bay end gable of the principal elevation to the outer left showing windows in left, right, and left bays at basement, principal and first floors respectively. The two-storey three-bay drawing room wing extends to the right, with regular fenestration in the bay to the left and a two-storey pedimented entrance porch with vertically-boarded timber door in the central bay; the right bay is obscured by the smoking room wing, which is advanced at an angle to the right. This wing comprises a single window in the northwest elevation (with gabled stone dormerhead breaking the eaves) adjacent to the re-entrant angle, and a single window to the left in the southwest elevation.

The south (garden) elevation is asymmetrical, with the two-bay gable end of the south jamb to the right showing windows at principal floor only. The three-bay bow-end of the drawing room adjoins to the left with regular fenestration at basement and (lower) principal floor. The smoking room wing extends at an angle to the left, with a window with gabled dormerhead breaking the eaves to the outer left; the elevation to the right is obscured by a five-bay timber conservatory with gabled roof, cast-iron finials and cresting to the ridge.

The east elevation is asymmetrical. The two-bay end gable of the principal elevation to the outer right is blank except for windows at basement level. The elevation of the south jamb is recessed at the left, with an irregularly-fenestrated bay with gable breaking the eaves adjacent to the re-entrant angle. The two-bay elevation of the south jamb extension lies to the left. A piend-roofed single storey, single bay wing at the southeast corner has bays at principal floor offset to the left.

Windows are timber sash and case, mainly twelve-pane to the principal elevation and gables, with a mixture of twelve, four, and eight-pane patterns to the rear elevation and wings. The principal ranges have pegged stone slab roofs, whilst the south jamb extension and smoking room wing (piended) have purple-grey slates. Cast-iron gutters and downpipes with hoppers are present (the east hopper on the principal elevation reads "JB 1835"). Harled apex stacks appear to gables and wallhead stacks to the south jamb extension parapets, with octagonal cans to brick-dentilled stone copes; a harl-pointed ridge stack with circular cans sits on the smoking room wing.

Walled Garden and Folly

A series of drystone walls extends to the south (some are mid-20th century), forming enclosures including a semi-circular "deer walk" at the south end. An eye-catcher centring the garden takes the form of a wallhead built up as a stepped rubble gable with brick arches and copes. A two-storey square-plan rustic folly has a vertically-boarded timber door and infilled window centring the east and west elevations respectively, with a string course around the first floor, two round-arched openings to each face above, and a brick-dentilled cornice at the eaves.

Glasshouses

Two monopitch structures stand to the west side of the garden. The north glasshouse is linked to the smoking room wing by a latticed timber gate. It has a harled rubble north wall with a vertically-boarded timber door at the centre, a four-pane fixed-light centred above and a narrow round-arched window to the right, and boulder ball-finials at the wallhead. The timber south wall has a vertically-boarded timber door to the right and two windows to the left, each with eight tall panes of layered glass. The south glasshouse has a north wall with a boilerhouse and wallhead stack at the centre, with layered glass on timber glazing bars to the roof and south and side elevations.

Steading and Cottage

To the east of the house stands a complex comprising three separate gabled ranges with a courtyard partially enclosed to the south by an L-plan cottage forming a quadrangle, with an additional gabled barn (now garage) to the south and pigsty to the east.

The west range and cottage have harl-pointed rubble walls with purple-grey slate roofs. The west elevation has four widely-spaced bays with narrow openings in each bay at first floor only and a full-height timber door in the bay to the right of centre. The north gable has concrete steps to a round-arched vertically-boarded timber loft door. The single storey and attic three-bay cottage elevation to the south comprises a door at ground in the centre bay, regular fenestration with modern glazing in the gabled bay to the left, and a dormer breaking the eaves in the bay to the right. The east elevation has a modern addition in the re-entrant angle at the outer left and a five-bay barn elevation to the right, with two-leaf vertically-boarded timber doors with four-pane fanlights in the penultimate bay to the left and outer right bay, and four-pane windows in the other bays.

The east range comprises a six-bay principal barn with loft and gabled projection centred to the east giving a T-plan, with a two-bay jamb with loft in shallow-pitched roof extending to the north. It has harl-pointed rubble walls with stugged sandstone dressings and a stone slab roof. The principal range has a full-height sliding timber door in the bay to the right of centre, cart-arches in the bay to the right, and a narrow window in the penultimate bay to the left with doors in flanking bays. A segmental-arched window and door appear in the right and left bays respectively of the north jamb. Rubble steps lead to a segmental-arched vertically-boarded timber loft door in the north gable. The east elevation has a gable advanced at the centre, with a blank elevation except for an eight-pane timber fixed-light to the outer right. A brick-infilled opening centres the south gable.

The pigsty has drystone walls and a stone slab roof, gabled to east and west, with two enclosures fronting the south elevation.

The garage has harl-pointed rubble walls with a shallow-pitched roof (modern cladding), gabled to east and west. Vertically-boarded timber doors flank the centre of the north gable. The east elevation has been adapted for a garage door, whilst vertically-boarded timber doors appear to the right of centre and at the outer left in the west elevation.

Doocot and Sundial

A two-storey, single bay symmetrical doocot is centred to the north of the house. It has harl-pointed rubble walls with a dentilled brick eaves cornice. The principal elevation to the south comprises a door at ground level, with vertically-boarded infill with round-arched flightholes to a square opening at first floor with brick margin. A roofless single storey monopitch lean-to stands to the rear, in the re-entrant angle to the east. The grey slate bell-cast pyramidal roof has a ball finial at the apex. A pedestal sundial of 1789 is centred to the south of the doocot.

Boundary Walls, Gates and Gatepiers

A series of enclosures lies to the north and west of the house, formed by a combination of harl-pointed and drystone rubble walls. The principal enclosure is symmetrically disposed to the north (principal) elevation of the house, with the doocot at the centre, flanked by wall curving to the south and meeting the corners of east and west walls with gates adjacent. The west gatepiers are of sandstone ashlar, comprising rusticated square shafts each with moulded base and cornice over frieze surmounted by ball finials, with a vertically-boarded timber gate. The east gate is of harl-pointed rubble with brick quoins, comprising an ashlar-margined vertically-boarded timber door at the centre with brick string course and dentilled cornice at wallhead, with gatepiers flanking with dentilled corniced caps, stepped to boulder ball finials. A secondary enclosure to the west has low harled walls with concrete copes to wallheads and piers (with ball finials) at the south gate and steps to the west. The north boundary wall (to the sea) extends west from the principal enclosure, with a small wrought-iron gate with semicircular rubble wind-break at the east end; the wallhead steps up to brick and rubble ball-finialled piers flanking a crenellated semicircular rubble recess for a flagpole. The boundary wall extends southwest to concrete entrance gatepiers at the north end of the west boundary wall. Additional gatepiers to the south are of squared rubble.