Bardrochat House

Bardrochat House is a large, asymmetrical country house dating from 1893, with extensions designed by Robert Lorimer in 1906-7. It is situated on a hillside overlooking the Stinchar valley and built in a Scots vernacular style. The exterior is limewashed render with red ashlar margins. The windows are arranged in tripartite and bipartite openings, with some roll-moulded architraves. Gabled and round-headed dormers break the wallhead, and the rear (south) elevation features a bell-cast roof to a round stair tower.

The north (entrance) elevation is asymmetrical with four bays. A shallow, projecting stone doorpiece with a panelled, two-leaf entrance door is positioned off-centre to the left, featuring a roll-moulded, lugged, key-stoned architrave and a carved inscription reading “FEAR GOD AND HONOUR THE KING”. An advanced bay to the far right has a projecting chimney breast and stack rising through the gable, above a tripartite window at ground level and a small upper-storey window. A large four-pane, pedimented stair window with stone mullions and transoms is found in the penultimate bay to the right, with decorative carving to the pediment. Two off-centre, pedimented dormers break the eaves; the left-hand dormer is carved and dated 1893, bearing initials RFMcE and MFD. To the left, a canted, three-light window breaks the eaves, topped with a shallow, bell-cast finialled roof. An opening leads to a courtyard, followed by a further two-storey crow-stepped wing to the far left.

The west elevation is also asymmetrical, with seven bays; the three bays to the far right are slightly raised and separated by a crow-stepped skew. An advanced bay to the far right features a Dutch gable and a tripartite window at ground level, paired windows above. Dormers break the eaves with decorative round-arched and gabled dormerheads. A full-height, six-light canted bay window is located at the far left.

The majority of the windows are 12-pane, timber sash and case windows. The pitched roofs are covered in grey Westmoreland slates with crow-stepped skews. Corniced gable and ridge stacks are present, along with iron rainwater goods, some of which are decorative.

The interior, observed in 2013, retains its original room layout and a good decorative scheme. Notable features include a galleried, timber-panelled entrance hall with a barrel vaulted ceiling, an open-well stair, decorative plaster ceilings in the music room and drawing room, a timber-panelled corridor, and both decorative and plain fire surrounds.