Baronald

Baronald

A large Scottish Baronial mansion built in 1890–91 by Sir John James Burnet of Burnet Son and Campbell. The building is constructed into a falling site, creating a picturesque asymmetrical composition of linked tower house-like blocks of differing heights. The entrance (south-west) front is 3-storey with dormer heads; the garden (north-east) front is 4-storey with dormer heads and attic. The walls are of snecked rubble local brown sandstone with buff ashlar dressings to moulded and chamfered openings, some on the principal south-west elevation having blind boxes. Crowstepped gables are crowned with large stacks of telescopic profile.

The entrance front presents an L-plan frontage with a large original conservatory filling the re-entrant angle. An advanced north-west block on the left comprises two bays, with a circular conical-roofed angle tourelle to the left, a mezzanine service level over the ground floor, and a projecting crowstepped gabled porch built asymmetrically into the semi-circular base of a canted first-floor oriel of the right-hand bay. The porch has rounded angles corbelled to square, an architraved doorpiece surmounted by a finely sculpted armorial panel with ogival pediment, and circular windows in checks with a corbel course stepped over the door. The left-hand bay contains single-light architraved openings; semi-circular pedimented dormer heads crown both bays. The angle tourelle rises from a square outshot with balustraded parapet and ball finial. A gabled return elevation over the conservatory has a corbel course stepped up into an arch over first-floor windows. A central 3-window bay linking the north-west and south-east blocks incorporates the main stair, with a 3-light swept dormer above and the south-east gable to the right; the lower part is screened by the conservatory with a canted front between square sculpted piers.

The south-east elevation displays three windows at basement level, two transomed windows and a small pedimented window at first floor, a boldly corbelled canted oriel at first floor and a 2-light pedimented dormer above, and a circular corner tourelle to the right rising from a polygonal base with fine armorial at basement level.

The north-east garden front features a massive stack cutting into the conical roof of the corner tourelle to the left. The centre comprises three bays with transomed ground-floor windows and corbel course over second-floor windows, alternating semi-circular and triangular-headed dormers, and a keyblocked architraved garden door with armorial panel over at the left-hand bay of the basement. Basement openings are cut into a deep battered base with set-off. The north-east gable of the north-west block to the right has a deeper battered base with set-off divided by a shallow buttress of the first-floor oriel, three transomed windows at ground floor with the central window cut into the buttress, and rounded angles corbelled to square below second-floor level. The first-floor oriel is canted with an elaborate Jacobethan aedicule and a parapet integrated with the corbel course continuous with that of the bays to the left; above are a 2-light second-floor window and a pedimented attic window.

The north-west elevation is asymmetrical with a corbel course on the left and a narrow advanced gable bay to the right, with a canted bay rising to first-floor level. A mullioned and transomed window at first floor has a central light blind with cartouche panel, with a 2-light window recessed above at second floor and a small attic window above that. A blind corbelled feature in the re-entrant angle at ground-floor level marks the division before the gable for the north-west block, now overlaid by a modern hotel addition at lower levels.

Internally, the porch leads to an inner vestibule with a shallow stair to ground-floor level, opening into a large stair hall screened by an outer screen of octagonal timber columns with original capitals and an inner glazed screen of etched glass. A dog-leg stair with turned baluster returns passes through an arcade of two unequal arches—one circular, one semi-elliptical—on an elaborate baluster newel column into the first-floor landing; other newels have grotesque heads and circular finials. A stone chimneypiece in the hall features dwarf columns and a Celtic interlacing frieze in panels, with a boldly projecting carved timber mantle shelf. The cills of the stair windows are stepped with the rake of the stair and feature elaborately coloured, gilded and monogrammed cartouche transom panels with clear decorative leaded glasswork. Lower walls are wainscotted; the flat ceiling is compartmentalised by ribs with circular bosses at intersections and a circular central panel. At the first-floor landing, a consoled shelf and a segmentally arched mirror with carved oak frame inlaid with finely painted ceramic circular panels—perhaps brought from Farme Castle, Rutherglen—are notable features. A smaller stair hall, partly over the top flight and partly beyond, continues to the upper floors.

The room in the north-west block, formerly a dining room and now a restaurant, has a wainscotted dado following a curvilinear line at the chimneypiece and windows. An elaborate Renaissance chimneypiece with consoles and a convex shelf with low-relief strapwork carving features a black marble inset and original red-tile grate with copper canopy. The room has a timber-beamed ceiling and clear decorative leaded glass at the oriel.

The room in the south-east block, formerly a drawing room and now a lounge bar, has a geometrically ribbed plaster ceiling, gilt, with Jacobethan strapwork in arched tympana over doors. Greenish clear leaded glass appears over transoms and at a small window on the south-east front; the wainscot has curvilinear tops at window reveals.

The former morning room, now a private room, displays a white and gold wainscot, a white marble chimneypiece set in a timber bead-and-reel architrave with swagged frieze, and original coloured tilework with a brass canopy.

Several bedrooms on the first floor have notable chimneypieces, including one to the north with an elaborate overmantel cabinet with a central leaded-glass section, an original grate, and tilework.