Stables, Auchincruive

Stables, Auchincruive (Gibbsyard)

A former stable block built circa 1780 and extensively restored in 1931. The building is arranged as a rectangular courtyard-plan with a single wing to the west. It comprises single storey and attic structures with a three-storey central tower and two-storey terminating blocks across a 15-bay frontage. The materials are tooled coursed sandstone for the tower, with harl to the remainder and predominantly polished sandstone and cement-faced dressings. Strip quoins mark the angles, with a base course, projecting cills, and eaves course. Sandstone gableted dormers break the eaves to the attic floor, crowned with decorative finials.

The north-east (entrance) elevation presents a symmetrical composition of 15 bays arranged 4-3-1-3-4, dominated by a square-plan clock tower at centre. A depressed-arched pend at ground floor leads through to the courtyard, with a blind window above. The clock, added in 1932 and gifted by Mr Cowieson of Kilmarnock House, Alexandria, is set to the centre of the 2nd floor. The tower is topped by a four-part domed roof surmounted by a square-plan lantern with weathervane to apex. On either side sit three-bay blocks adjoining left and right, featuring architraved doorways with scrolled datestones above reading "1931" and two-leaf panelled timber doors to the flanking bays, with windows either side of the doors at ground floor level. Dormers centred to the attic floor feature ogee-gableted heads. Two windows to the ground floor of the outer bays flank a single dormer above. Two-storey four-bay terminating blocks occupy the outer left and right, with two panelled timber doors and decorative timber fanlights to the ground floor of the centre two bays of the left block and regular fenestration to the remainder; the right block features a single doorway to the penultimate bay with regular fenestration elsewhere and four-light skylights to the attic.

The north-west elevation is asymmetrical across 12 bays with a single-storey block adjoining to the outer right. A blank gabled bay is advanced to the left, with regular fenestration to the ground and first floors of the right return. A gabled bay recessed to the right features an 18-pane window to centre with a blind sandstone curvilinear gablehead, and a window to the right at ground floor. A ten-bay block steps down to the right, featuring a central tripartite window, two doorways to the outer right, regular fenestration to the remainder, and ventilators and skylights to the attic. A further block stepped down to the outer right has two sliding doors and glazing strips to the attic, with a large doorway to the gabled right return.

The south-west elevation is predominantly blank, with a gabled bay to the outer right featuring modern irregular glazing, flanked to the left by a doorway and depressed-arched pend to the courtyard.

The south-east elevation was not visible at the time of survey in 1999.

The courtyard elevations feature depressed-arched pends to the north-east and south-west. Windows are centred to the 1st and 2nd floors of the tower. A variety of panelled and boarded timber doors are flanked by regular fenestration, with broad small-pane rectangular dormers to the attic floors.

Throughout the building, windows are predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case. The roof is grey slate with tiled ridge and coped stone skews. Harled and brick gablehead and ridge stacks carry circular cans. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

The interior was not seen at survey in 1999.

This building forms part of a group with East Lodge, Hanging Garden, Ice House, Oswald Hall, Oswald's Temple, Walled Garden, West Lodge and Wilson Hall. The Auchincruive Estate was owned by the Wallace family in the 13th century and passed through various owners until the 18th century when James Murray of Broughton sold it to Richard Oswald, an entrepreneur and merchant, in 1764. The estate remained in the Oswald family until 1925, when it was sold to local farmer John M Hannah, who gifted it to the West of Scotland Agricultural College in 1927. The college retained ownership as of 1999.

The elegant symmetrical front of the home farm interestingly masks an asymmetrically placed courtyard reached through the pend beneath the sandstone clock tower. The clock was restored in 1994. Gibbsyard was extensively restored during the 1930s, and certain details—particularly the curvilinear gableheads to the north-east and especially the north-west—suggest the influence of Robert Lorimer or the involvement of his partner John F Matthew, who continued to practice as Lorimer and Matthew after Lorimer's death in 1929. The nearby Wilson Hall, designed by D S McPhail in the Scots-baronial manner, was similarly influenced by Lorimer.