Yard And Walled Garden, Ledcameroch With Stables, Perth Road, Dunblane

Yard and Walled Garden, Ledcameroch with Stables, Perth Road, Dunblane

A substantial villa and associated buildings dating from 1858, with extensions added in 1888. The main house is a 2-storey, 8-bay rectangular-plan villa in the Italianate style, asymmetrically composed and crowned by a 3-stage central tower. The walls are constructed of squared and snecked, bull-faced whinstone with yellow ashlar sandstone margins, detailed with long and short quoins, a base course, and a dividing band between the first and second storeys. The building features barge-boarded overhanging eaves with projecting rafters.

The principal north elevation presents the most elaborate composition. A slightly advanced gabled entrance bay occupies the centre-right, with a panelled timber door at its centre flanked by spiral fluted columns on plinths with Ionic capitals. These support a deep roll-moulded semicircular-arched reveal with a scrolled keystone. The entrance is framed by heavy pilasters and adjacent windows, which terminate in scrolled consoles supporting a projecting cornice and coped balcony to a semicircular-arched window on the first floor. A slightly advanced gabled bay to the right contains a canopied square-headed window on the first floor. A single-storey lean-to bay to the centre-left features a gabled window breaking the eaves. The 3-stage tower rises behind the main elevation; its first stage is engaged, while the second stage contains a bipartite semicircular-arched window within a pointed-arch ashlar margin, with a continuous string course at cill height. The third stage has a smaller bipartite semicircular-arched window with a continuous string course at impost height. Scrolled timber brackets support the projecting cornice to the roof, which is a tall pyramidal form crowned with cast-iron decorative cresting. Small windows appear to the left of the tower. An advanced 2-storey gabled bay with an attic storey occupies the outer left.

The south (rear) elevation comprises a single bay to the outer left, a 3-bay central block with an advanced gabled canted bay to the left, and a 2-storey block with attic and 4 bays to the outer right.

The east side elevation displays 2-storey with attic proportions and regular fenestration. A gabled bay to the right is flanked by an advanced 2-storey, 3-bay deep gabled bay abutting to the left, with a single-storey piended roof block abutting this advanced bay at the north-east corner. A single-bay gabled stair tower stands to the centre, with a 2-bay north return to the outer right.

The west side elevation shows 2-storey, 2-bay proportions with chamfered quoins. A slightly advanced bay to the left contains stone-mullioned tripartite windows with an ashlar entablature and projecting cornice to the ground floor. A broad bay to the right is dominated by an advanced gabled canted bay at its centre, corbelled out to the gablehead and bearing an inset panel inscribed 'CC 1884'.

The windows are predominantly plate glass, set in timber-framed sash and case frames. The roofing consists of grey slates with lead flashing, and cast-iron rainwater goods complete the exterior.

The entrance porch retains tessellated floor tiles. The interior has been substantially altered; it has been largely gutted and fitted with new partition walls, doors and floating ceilings for conversion to staff accommodation.

The stables and stable yard form a complementary composition. The stable block is 2-storey, 4-bay, and rectangular-plan, constructed in a similar manner to the main house. Its central double bay opens to the ground with a central cast-iron column and stalls to the rear, while the upper storey has two small windows with gables breaking the eaves. Symmetrical 2-storey blocks flank this central section: the left block features a segmentally-arched carriage entrance with a boarded 2-leaf timber door, while the right block has regular fenestration and a cat-slide roof to its outer right. Both flanking blocks are blank to their sides and rear. The stable yard wall is constructed of small random rubble with square-plan bull-faced entrance piers and plain coped caps.

The walled garden comprises a rectangular-plan structure of coped random rubble wall positioned to the south-east of the house, connected by a small gated link wall abutting the south-east corner.