Lunna House, Lunna Ness

Lunna House, Lunna Ness

Lunna House is a laird's house dating from the later 17th century, with additions made in the early 18th and 20th centuries. The building occupies an irregular plan and comprises a T-plan original core of two storeys plus attic, arranged as a three-bay hall with a single storey kitchen wing projecting to the north-east at the centre of the rear elevation. An early 18th century two-storey addition oriented north-east to south-west abuts the north-west gable of the hall, and a two-storey porch from the early 20th century sits in the south re-entrant angle. A further two-storey three-bay wing of 1910 projects north-west from the early 18th century addition. The walls are harled with painted droved ashlar and concrete margins.

The later 17th century range presents a near-symmetrical south-west (principal) elevation with regular fenestration at ground and first floors in the outer right bay and a blank bay at the centre. The left bay is obscured by a two-storey parapetted semi-octagonal entrance porch with a full-height opening to its centre face containing modern glazing and an entrance door. Two-light piend-roofed slate-hung timber dormers with 12-pane timber sash and case glazing are set over the outer bays. The north-east (rear) elevation features a gabled kitchen wing advanced at the centre with a blank gable end and a tall square single flue stack. Two-bay side elevations contain 4-pane timber glazing and an entrance door to the north-west side. The rear elevation of the hall rises behind the kitchen wing, with a single window at ground floor to the right, windows flanking the kitchen roof at first floor, an additional small window to the right of the ridge, and a piend-roofed slate-hung timber dormer centred over the kitchen wing. The south-east gable is blank.

The early 18th century range features a south-west gable with two bays: blind windows at ground and first floors in the left bay, and a ground floor window containing a carved panel dated 1707 in the right bay, alongside bowed window openings at both ground and first floors. The north-west elevation is framed by flying buttresses with square shafts angled to the elevation and capped by beach-stone finials on domical bases. Regular fenestration appears at ground and first floors in the outer bays; first floor windows break the eaves with catslide dormerheads. An irregularly fenestrated bay adjacent to a 20th century wing projects to the right of centre, above which sits a piend-roofed slate-hung canted timber dormer. The centre of the south-east elevation is obscured by the early building and entrance porch, but a regularly fenestrated bay adjacent to the left is advanced and breaks the eaves as a parapetted dormerhead. A large (now truncated) wallhead stack breaks the eaves to the right of the early building. The north-east gable contains two bays: blank at ground floor, with regular fenestration at first floor.

The early 20th century range has an asymmetrical south-west elevation with a regularly fenestrated centre bay advanced with a crenellated parapet breaking the eaves, regular fenestration in the left bay, and bipartite windows at ground and first floors in the right bay. The north-west gable contains windows at ground floor in the left bay and at first floor in the right bay. The north-east elevation is asymmetrical, with a window at first floor only in the centre bay, regular fenestration in the left bay, and a blank right bay.

Throughout the building, predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case glazing is employed. Purple-grey slate covers the principal roof pitches and dormers, with stone slab roofing to the kitchen wing. Harled apex stacks to the gables of each range feature sandstone ashlar and concrete copes, with plain and decorative circular cans. Harled crowsteps finish the gables, some with bracketed skewputts.

The interior preserves features from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, including six-panel doors with fielded panelling, herringbone timber lining and a contemporary chimneypiece in the early 20th century wing, vertically-boarded timber lining to the kitchen, a timber principal staircase with ball-finialledNewels and turned spindles, a drawing room at first floor of the early 18th century range, a post-war chimneypiece to the south gable, and a deeply-coved plaster ceiling with an unusual raised centre.

The garden and surrounding features include drystone walls splayed to the east at the house along the northern approach, a series of drystone walls (retaining to the east and south) forming a roughly heart-shaped enclosure around the house, and a line of cope stones delineating a terrace to the south-west. Droved ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal caps provide access to an avenue to the south-west, while rough gatepiers with beach-stone finials mark paired gateways to the south-east accessing a series of enclosed gardens. A rubble outbuilding with a mono-pitch roof (formerly stone slab) sloping to the west stands in the garden to the north. A square-based sundial with a baluster-like shaft supporting a corniced head is situated within the garden to the south. Ruinous remains of low drystone walls line the avenue to the south-west of the house, leading downhill on axis with a folly and cottage to the west gates.