Cromlix House Game Larder

Cromlix House, built in 1874 by Brown and Wardrop or Wardrop and Reid, is a large, multi-gabled house exhibiting Scots Baronial details, and now serves as a hotel. The original design was a two-storey, five-bay structure, but it suffered a fire in 1879 and was rebuilt in 1880. Between 1900 and 1903, the house was significantly enlarged to the east and north by G.T.Ewing and William Finlayson. The building is distinguished by the incorporation of the original single-storey, apsidal chapel on the southeast side.

The house is constructed of coursed, rock-faced red sandstone with cream sandstone dressings, featuring bipartite and tripartite windows with stone mullions. Pointed arched windows characterize the chapel. Timber bargeboards adorn the gables.

The east or entrance elevation is asymmetrical and three-storey with seven bays. A single-storey, canted, crenellated entrance porch with a two-leaf timber door is positioned on the left side. Adjacent to the porch is the semi-circular chapel, which includes a cill course and a metal cruciform finial.

The south elevation showcases an advanced, three-storey, gabled bay with attic space to the right, flanked on the top floor by corbelled pepperpot turrets. A central, two-storey crenellated bow window is present. A large, 20th-century conservatory has been added to the re-entrant angle to the west.

Predominantly timber sash and case windows with horns and plate glass are used throughout. Grey slate covers the roof, and tall, coped ridge and gable stacks are prominent, along with cast iron rainwater goods.

The interior is finely decorated and retains many original features, including decorative cornicing, four and six-panelled timber doors, servants' bells, two box timber-lined flushing toilets, and working timber shutters. The chapel displays particularly exceptional decoration. The house boasts a variety of finely decorated, classical white and grey marble chimneypieces in the public rooms. A panelled timber entrance hall leads to a wide, finely carved timber well-stair, featuring barleysugar detailed balusters and square, panelled newels. The morning room has shallow, fluted pilasters on the walls, dentilled cornicing, and fluted Ionic pilasters. The dining room and library offer panelled timber dado and working shutters; the library features a finely carved timber chimneypiece.

The chapel includes a panelled timber dado, an open timber trussed rafter roof, and a tiled floor in a chequerboard pattern. Decorative floor tiles by Campbell Tile Co, Stoke on Trent, dating from 1883, are found in the sanctuary. A piscina with a cusped pointed arch is on the left side, while a larger similar recess occupies the right side. An oak screen divides the organ area. The marble altar piece features a carved crucifixion scene, and the windows contain stained glass.

A single-storey, gabled, rectangular game larder is located to the northeast of the house. Constructed with board and batten timber and bargeboard detailing, it has large mesh openings on all elevations and a four-panel timber door. The interior, which retains intact timber battens and supports with metal hooks.

Garden boundary walls made of rubble with flat coping and buttresses extend to the east and south, incorporating two sets of stone steps with stepped parapets.

An ancillary building, originally a deer larder, stands to the northwest. This square structure has a pyramidal roof with boarded timber, a boarded door, and timber louvred openings. The interior has not been inspected.

A pair of grey sandstone, square-plan gatepiers with pyramidal caps are situated to the southwest of the house.