Coach House And Estates Office, Stables (Carriage Exhibition), Balmoral Castle

Coach House and Estates Office, Stables at Balmoral Castle

This substantial complex was designed by William Smith in 1857, with later sympathetic additions and alterations. It comprises a symmetrical Scottish Jacobean composition of four linked ranges arranged around courtyards: two-storey U-plan outer ranges to the north and south, a single-storey central range, linking screen walls to the west, and a two-storey bothy to the east. The building is constructed of squared and coursed granite with polished dressings, probably reusing masonry from the earlier castle demolished in 1856.

The principal west elevation faces the Castle and extends for 13 bays. The mirrored north and south office ranges present as three-bay returns, each with a gabled entrance bay at the centre containing a short flight of granite steps leading to a boarded door with two-pane fanlights. The first floor is jettied on a corbel course, overstepping the door, and features a window and Jacobean curvilinear gable with ball finial. Flanking bays contain windows to each floor. Round towers break the eaves at the inner corners, fitted with arrowslit windows (both blind and glazed) winding around their circumference, and conical roofs with finials. Single-bay gabled returns on the outer and inner elevations feature windows to each floor. The screen walls linking to the central loggia have parapets two storeys in height, with a Tudor carriage arch abutting the east corner of the offices. The central former riding school is headed on the west by a three-bay Tudor-arched loggia, advanced beyond the screen walls, with stop-chamfered arrises to the arches and a stepped parapet with clock at centre.

The east elevation shows mirrored end returns of the north and south ranges, formerly used as groom and stablehand accommodation. Each return comprises five bays with a gabled bay at the centre. Ground and first floor windows sit in recessed panels; the first floor is jettied slightly on a corbel course with a window and ball finial. Flanking bays contain doors at ground level—the centre door is now blinded, with a window above—and windows to each floor. The south block's gabled return is blank, while the north block's gabled return contains two ground windows and two blind windows at first floor level. A free-standing block at the centre has four bays facing east with louvred hayloft windows at first floor and a tall open lean-to at ground level. To its west, a three-bay courtyard elevation has a door flanked by windows at ground level, a hayloft door above with gabled dormerhead, and widely spaced windows to each floor in the outer bays. Blank gabled returns flank these bays, and the centre features a pedimented and louvred ridge ventilator.

The north stable range comprises the east and west return blocks described above, with a long central range. A later timber store and workshop addition spans the ground floor to the north, nearly filling the recess, with six small windows above. The courtyard elevation extends for nine bays, arranged in three regular groups, each with a stable door opening to a hayloft above (one now blocked as a window) with gabled dormerheads. Flanking bays feature ground-floor windows, with a segmental-arched doorway to the right of the centre group. Windows or louvred openings occupy the first floor.

The south coach house range contains the east and west return blocks previously described. Its south elevation features a flat-roofed later timber fire appliance garage and covered port set in a recess at ground level, masking the masonry below; nine windows sit above. Seven segmental coach arches open to the courtyard, with five retaining their original chevron-boarded two-leaf doors and two fitted with fixed boarding and small doors. Each bay has a window above. Circular metal ventilators pierce the ridge.

The centre range's west loggia is as described above. The remaining elevations are largely blank, with later French windows to the south and a door and blind door to the east gable. The range has been converted for exhibition use, with a long glazed lantern running along the west ridge, capped by the original pedimented and louvred timber ventilators.

Throughout, small-pane glazing features in sash and case windows. The roof is laid with grey slates. The outer gables feature crowstepped profiles with chimney heads, while gablet coped bay gableheads mark the entrance features. Scroll-bracketed skewputts and coped ridges, wall stacks, and gablehead stacks complete the details. Granite setts pave the courtyards.

The interior retains fine early fittings associated with its original use as stables and coach houses.