Bridge Lodge (Police Barracks), Balmoral Castle

Bridge Lodge, also known as the Police Barracks, is a building located at Balmoral Castle, constructed between 1870 and 1871 with later additions. It is designed in a U-plan layout and consists of a single storey double cottage, originally serving as police barracks and a hospital. The structure is made of squared and coursed granite, featuring a base course and stugged dressings, and is topped with crowstepped gables.

The south cottage is arranged in an L-plan with a five-bay south elevation. The left side has three bays, which include a gabled stone porch with a buttress flanking a Tudor-arched entrance, and stop-chamfered reveals. There is a blank panel in the gablehead, along with scroll-bracketed skewputts and a finial. Narrow windows are present on the return elevations and flanking the porch, while the outer bays contain windows. The right side features two bays with a gabled section that has a raised chimney breast dividing the bays, a door to the left that is part-glazed with a two-pane fanlight, and a window to the right. The left return is gabled and includes a window set in an advanced stone panel with a stone piended roof and a fleur-de-lys stone finial.

The west cottage is three bays wide and positioned at right angles to the south cottage. It has a gabled stone porch at the centre, with stop-chamfered arrises and reveals, a panelled door, and a fanlight leading to a Tudor-arched doorway. There is a shield panel in the gablehead, along with scroll-bracketed skewputts and a finial stump. Narrow windows are located on the returns, and windows are present in the flanking bays. The left return elevation is gabled and features a raised chimney breast at the centre with a window to the left, as well as projecting bays at the rear.

Around 1990, a single storey L-plan addition made of imitation granite concrete blocks was added, extending northwest from the rear wing of the south cottage. A lean-to porch infill connects the two cottages.

The windows are sash and case style, featuring a four-pane glazing pattern. The roof is covered with grey slates, and the building has clay and lead ridge coping, along with coped gablehead stacks.