Ault Wharrie including summer house, former gate lodge, outbuilding to northeast, walled garden, terraced garden wall, boundary wall and gatepiers and excluding the later 20th century addition at the northeast, Leewood road, Dunblane

Ault Wharrie is an outstanding Glasgow Style mansion designed by George Walton in collaboration with Fred Rowntree in 1900, with important alterations in 1924 likely by James Miller and his chief assistant Richard McLeod Morrison Gunn. This asymmetrical, predominantly two-storey, ten-bay house is built of red brick with red sandstone margins and retains an exceptional Arts and Crafts interior scheme that was carefully restored between 2013 and 2016. The listing includes the house itself, a summer house, former gate lodge, northeast outbuilding, walled garden, terraced garden walls, boundary wall and gatepiers. A later 20th-century addition at the northeast is excluded.

Architectural Description

The west elevation presents a composition of contrasting volumes. To the outer left stands a three-storey, three-bay block (now part of Stewart House) with a pyramidal roof and central double-height bay window. To the right extends a two-storey, eight-bay block with a piended roof. This longer range features an oriel window at the outer left, followed by alternating double-height, three-light canted windows and gableted bays with broken pedimented eaves containing brick mullioned bipartite and tripartite windows. The central first-floor windows are distinguished by arched inscribed pediments with carved sunflower motifs.

The east elevation displays a series of piended, irregular, two-storey advanced blocks at the left. The T-plan block at the outer left has a coped shouldered gable on the right return, a row of six closely-set brick mullioned windows at ground floor, and a single-storey arched porch to the right containing an arched timber panelled door with leaded glass and fanlight. To the right stands a three-storey, three-bay block with pyramidal roof, featuring an arched multipaned door with fanlight and a rectangular two-storey corbelled oriel window.

The south elevation comprises two advanced outer blocks with swept roofs flanking a central recessed bay. A single-storey advanced block at the left has a crowstepped gable parapet, while a canted advanced bay window at the outer right has an embattled parapet. The recessed bay contains a tall bipartite window to the left and an oval window to the right.

The north elevation includes a two-storey extension (part of Stewart House) to the left, while the recessed three-storey range to the right (also part of Stewart House) features a timber-framed, roofed balcony set upon large brick corbels.

Throughout the building, openings are predominantly timber casement with some multipaned leaded windows. A continuous sill-height stringcourse runs at both storeys, and windows have projecting stone sills. Cast-iron rainwater goods include moulded guttering. The roof is covered with grey slates and red ridge tiles. Tall rectangular brick chimney stacks with sandstone coping punctuate the roofline, some now lowered. On the principal elevation, one ribbed stack survives, the only one retaining this feature.

Interior

The interior preserves an outstanding Arts and Crafts scheme designed by George Walton in 1900, largely restored between 2013 and 2016. Surviving features from the early 20th-century scheme include the entrance hall's tessellated floor and fitted benches; timber panelling with inset rose stained-glass detail and built-in cupboards in the main hall; a central staircase in the southeast corner of the hall with tapered octagonal newels and tall chamfered balusters; fitted cupboards, shelves and benches in the billiard room; a fitted cabinet with copper detailing in the dining room; deeply concave cornices; ribbed window surrounds; unusual window latches; fitted cupboards in most first-floor rooms; and tiled fireplaces.

The interiors of the 1920s extension (now forming part of Stewart House) retain contemporary fittings including doors, fireplaces, windows and window treatments that are characteristic of their interwar date.

Associated Structures

Former Gate Lodge: Located to the west of Ault Wharrie/Stewart House, this single-storey, three-bay, rectangular-plan asymmetrical lodge with bellcast roof likely dates to 1900. Built of red brick with sandstone projecting sills and timber detailing, it features a projecting porch to the centre with swept roof on scrolled timber brackets, and an eight-pane timber panelled door flanked by six-pane square windows. The left bay has a multipane bipartite window with timber mullion, and the right has a bowed five-light multipane window with timber mullions. A later addition extends to the rear. Tall coped ridge stacks rise above the grey slate roof with lead flashing and red ridge tiles.

Outbuilding to Northeast: This single-storey, four-bay, rectangular-plan asymmetrical building with bellcast roof (possibly a former washhouse) likely dates to 1900. A timber porch at the centre of the left bay has a fishbone ceiling, and a recessed timber door with ribbed detailing is flanked by timber-framed sash and case windows. The white-tiled interior has a cement floor and timber panelled ceiling with rectangular rooflights. A small lunette window appears on the principal elevation. The roof is covered with grey slates, lead flashing and red ridge tiles, and topped with a decorative finial.

Summer House: This small single-storey, square-plan shelter within the walled garden likely dates to 1900. Open to the northwest, it is built of red brick with painted timber detailing and has a slated ogee roof with lead cap and cast-iron finial.

Walled Garden: This rectangular-plan enclosure features high random rubble or harled walls with chamfered coping to the rear of the house, likely dating to 1900. Tall square-plan ashlar entrance piers stand to the northeast and northwest, each with ogee caps and cast-iron finials.

Terraced Garden Wall: Likely dating to 1900, the two-tier terraced garden to the rear of the house features a random rubble coped terrace wall running the length of the house and terminating in a short flight of steps at both ends. A similar wall defines the lower terrace, with ball finials to the corners of the steps and piers with pyramidal caps at the outer corners of the wall.

Boundary Wall and Gatepiers: The coped small stone random rubble wall with large inset stones and stylised raised mortar likely dates to 1900. Square-plan ashlar gatepiers with decorative bronze sconces for former lights are linked to low coped quadrant walls that frame the driveway and terminate in squat piers with pyramidal caps.

Historical Development

George Walton designed Ault Wharrie in collaboration with Fred Rowntree in 1900 for J.G. Stewart, a businessman and former provost of the Burgh of Dunblane. Building control records document alterations in 1905, 1910 and 1924. The Dictionary of Scottish Architects records that the 1924 alterations were undertaken by James Miller and his chief assistant Richard McLeod Morrison Gunn. The three-storey block at the outer left of the west elevation (now part of Stewart House) and the game room at the right corner of the south elevation are likely components of the 1924 alterations.

The building first appears on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey map (revised 1930, published 1932), which shows the former gate lodge, northeast outbuilding, terraced garden, walled garden and summer house, along with several other structures including an irregular-plan and an L-plan outbuilding north of the house, now removed.

An extension formerly known as the caretaker's house was added to the north elevation in the 1960s or 1970s (proposed to be excluded from the listing and forming part of Stewart House). This Z-plan extension appears on the Ordnance Survey map revised in 1964 and published in 1965.

In the later 20th century, the house and grounds served as the Royal Masonic Nursing Home, during which many internal features were removed.

Between 2013 and 2016, Ault Wharrie underwent extensive renovations to conserve surviving interior features of Walton's 1900 design, with reference to contemporary sources. The main hall frieze, drawing room ceiling decoration and billiard room frieze were uncovered and missing parts recreated. Stained-glass insets in doors and wall panelling were reproduced and reinstated, along with most of the ironmongery of doors and windows. The inglenook with fitted seats in the central sitting room was reproduced based on original documentary sources. The original fitted cabinet with copper detailing was uncovered in the dining room. The works also included removal of a single-storey terrace room addition to the west elevation and a small annexe to the original billiard room on the south elevation.

During the 2013–2016 renovations, a partition wall was erected between the three-storey block at the outer left of the west elevation (now part of Stewart House) and the main house (Ault Wharrie) to create a separate dwelling. The three-storey block was internally connected with the 1960s/1970s Z-plan extension (former caretaker's house) to form Stewart House. At this time, some later extensions to the caretaker's house were removed.