Leighton Library, The Cross, Dunblane

Leighton Library, located at The Cross in Dunblane, is a significant building dating from 1684 to 1687, originally constructed as a clerics' library. It was designed by James Robinson of Park of Keir, who served as Clerk of Works to Lord Strathallan, and was restored in the mid-1980s by Honeyman, Jack and Robertson. The library is a single-storey structure with a basement and has a rectangular plan. It features crow-stepped gables and large round-arched windows on the ground floor, along with a vesica-shaped panel on the east elevation. The exterior is harled with sandstone ashlar dressings, and the west side has two windows with moulded architraves.

On the east elevation, there is a forestair leading to an architraved entrance on the right, with late 20th-century railings and an oak door presented in 1924. To the left of the forestair is an entrance set back, along with an adjacent basement entrance, both featuring boarded timber doors. A near-central vesica-shaped panel with a moulded architrave is located on the principal floor, which contains a marble cartouche and the coat-of-arms of Bishop Leighton.

The west elevation has a projecting ledge above most of the basement, with an entrance positioned to the right of centre. The boundary wall of the manse projects at a right angle to the right. There are two large round-arched windows on the principal floor.

On the south elevation, there is a round-arched window to the left of the principal elevation, along with two small lights in the gable. The north elevation is a blank gable end, with the boundary wall of the manse projecting at a right angle to the left of the basement.

Inside, the main floor is a single room lined with fitted bookcases and features a boarded timber ceiling with decorative timber air vents. The vaulted basement appears to have originally contained windows. The building has 15-pane timber sash and case windows and a grey slate roof, with a gablehead stack that is coped, one being gabled and with missing cans.