Old Sauchie, Cottars

Old Sauchie, Cottars

A late 16th-century tower house with early 17th-century extension, late 17th- or early 18th-century adjoining wing, former stables, and a single cottage with walled garden, set on steeply falling ground to the northeast.

The main tower house is a 3-storey building with attic, in L-plan form, constructed of random rubble with dressed stone margins. The exterior displays military features including gun hole loops, pistol holes, and peep holes. The gables are crowstepped with cavetto skewputts and coped stacks (later fitted with replacement cans), and a cavetto-moulded eaves course runs around the building. The southwest elevation contains the principal entrance, set in a re-entrant angle with roll-moulded architrave, and flanked by gun loops; a blocked opening lies above the entrance between the first and second floors. The southeast elevation features a corbelled stairtower at its centre with a gable to its right and an entrance to its left. The northeast elevation is topped by flanking corbelled turrets at attic level.

A former kitchen wing adjoins the tower house to the northwest gable, with a pair of windows at first floor level breaking the wallhead beneath a catslide roof and a former entrance, now a window opening, at ground floor level. A further 2-storey range of former estate offices extends to the left, with irregular fenestration and blocked openings; the original centred entrance to the left in a re-entrant angle is marked by 2-leaf timber doors, while a former entrance to the right has been blocked to form a window. The rear and northeast gable of the adjoining wing are harled.

The interior of the tower house and adjoining ranges was substantially remodelled to form dwellings circa 2000. The tower now has replacement multipane leaded windows set over timber panels, while the adjoining wing is fitted with multipane glazing in timber sash and case windows. The roof of the tower is a replacement pitch roof with grey slates and later roof lights; the stairtower and turrets have conical roofs. The adjoining wing has squared rubble coped ridge stacks.

The stables building, situated to the north of the tower house, stands 2 storeys high with a single storey range to the northeast, built of rubble with dressed stone margins. The principal southwest elevation is asymmetrical, with a segmental-arched pend entrance to the centre and entrance doors to the return; first floor windows are set close to the eaves. The crowstepped gables are characteristic of the period. The northeast elevation comprises roughly 4-bay and 2-bay ranges connected by a circa 2000 glazed section. Stone setts cover the courtyard floor. Segmental-arched pend entrances with raised keystones are a distinctive feature. The interior courtyard elevation shows irregular fenestration including a crowstepped pedimented dormer to the left of the southwest range, with some blocked openings and later first floor openings with raised ashlar margins. Stone forestairs lead to entrances in the southwest and northwest ranges. Wide flat-arched openings at ground floor in the northeast and southeast ranges have later glazing. The building was subdivided into five dwellings circa 2000. Some original fireplaces remain, and the interior of Number 3 contains engaged capped ashlar gatepiers and an inspection pit.

The Cottars, a single-storey cottage, is constructed of random rubble with droved stone margins, harled to rear and side elevations with painted margins. The principal southwest elevation includes a bargeboarded pedimented dormer breaking the eaves and a 2-leaf timber entrance door to the right. The roof is pitched with grey slates and coped ridge stacks fitted with circular cans.

Adjoining the cottage to the southeast is a square-plan walled garden, built of random rubble walls with ashlar copes and a small arched opening in the northwest wall.

Boundary walls of random rubble stand to the southeast and northwest of the tower house; the northwestern wall has a squared cope.

Windows throughout the complex predominantly feature multipane glazing in timber sash and case frames. The buildings were repaired and remodelled by J A Leask Architects (tower house, circa 2002) and Martin Williams of Modern Space Company Limited (ancillary buildings, circa 2000).