Aucheneck House

Aucheneck House

A Scottish baronial mansion built circa 1855, with extensions and partial remodelling to the southwest around 1880, and some restoration and demolition undertaken circa 1980. The building is arranged over two storeys with a basement, within an overall rectangular plan. The main block is dominated by a five-storey tower, with the remains of a single-storey service wing to the southwest.

The design employs characteristic Scottish baronial features throughout: crowstepped gables, mullioned windows, a bracketed crenellated parapet, and conical-roofed bartizans with lead ball finials at the tower arrises. The external walls are constructed in coursed rockfaced sandstone, more widely coursed to the slightly projecting basement, with the masonry droved at arrises and openings. Sandstone ashlar dressings, mainly droved, are employed throughout. A band course runs above the ground floor, with an eaves band completing the main elevations. Window reveals are chamfered.

The southeast elevation serves as the principal entrance front. A crenellated parapet runs along the ground in front of the basement. The five-bay main block is positioned to the right, with a projecting gabled bay featuring ball finials to the left of centre. A rectangular-plan porch, accessed by balustraded steps, has a crenellated parapet with a raised semicircular-headed panel to the centre and a plain projecting plaque below. The central section of the porch projects slightly around the entrance, which has a roll-moulded surround. Windows flank the outer returns of the bay, with slightly concave arrises at window level, corbelled out above; a mullioned bipartite window is set back above with the eaves band stepped around it. A blind arrowslit appears in the gable, with small basement windows to each outer return. Two narrow bays set back to the left have windows to each floor; two wider bays set back to the right also have windows to each floor, formerly mullioned bipartites (the mullion is missing to that on the right of the first floor). The first-floor windows have breaking-eaves crowstepped gables with blind arrowslits; a small basement window sits between the two bays. The five-storey tower projects to the outer left, with mullioned bipartites to the basement, first and third floors; the first-floor window has a hood-mould, and the third-floor window has the eaves band stepped around it. A corbelled-out canted mullioned quadripartite oriel occurs at ground-floor level. A pair of hood-moulded windows appears on the second floor. A panel carved with the date '1980' is positioned at the upper level of the right return.

The northwest elevation shows a four-bay main block to the left. A slightly projecting ball-finialled gabled bay with a blind arrowslit occupies the outer left, incorporating a canted window projection to the basement and ground floor with a mullioned bipartite at basement level and a mullioned tripartite at ground level, both with outer flanking single lights. A hood-moulded bipartite window appears on the first floor. Three bays set back to the left have mullioned bipartites to each floor (the mullion is missing to the outer right of the first floor), with breaking-eaves crowstepped gables and blind arrowslits to those of the first floor. The remains of a single-storey, five-bay service wing is set back slightly to the right, with a gabled bay to the outer right (containing a blind arrowslit and a window below) and windows to each bay to the left. The five-storey tower is set back behind.

The southwest elevation shows the remains of a single-storey, two-bay service wing to the left. The main block is set back behind. A gabled bay to the left has a former opening to the service wing, now blocked, with a small window to the right. A corbelled-out semicircular-plan projection with a small window occurs immediately above at ground-floor level. Part of a gabled bay appears to the right. A basement entrance is flanked by a small window to the right, with mullioned bipartite stair windows to two levels above (the upper one elongated). The five-storey tower projects to the right, with narrow windows to the left of the ground, first and second floors, and a blocked window above. Mullioned bipartites appear to the right of the basement, ground and first floors at the left return, with a narrow window to the left on the ground and first floors. Two windows occur on the second floor, and a window with the eaves band stepped around it appears on the third floor.

The northeast elevation displays a two-bay section of the main block. A blank gabled bay projects slightly to the left, with a finialled conical-roofed bartizan at the right arris of the first floor containing two small windows. A projecting window surround, set back to the basement and ground floor to the right, incorporates two windows at basement level and a mullioned tripartite at ground level, with a mullioned tripartite above.

Most windows and entrances are now boarded up, with most window frames removed. Grey slate roofs cover the main block; the roof to the single-storey service wing to the southwest is missing, along with some external walls. Two coped ridge stacks and two coped gablehead stacks with octagonal cans serve the main block.

The interior was not inspected at the time of survey in 1999.