Balmoral Castle With Parterre And Terrace Walls

Balmoral Castle with Parterre and Terrace Walls

Balmoral Castle is a quadrangular mansion designed by William Smith under the direction of Prince Albert, constructed between 1852 and 1856. The formal gardens were laid out between 1855 and 1859. The building exemplifies a composite baronial style drawing on both English and Scottish Tudor-Jacobean traditions. All external elevations are faced in granite ashlar quarried from Canup Hill, Glen Gelder, with roofs of Foudland slates.

The main castle block measures approximately 120 feet east-west and 113 feet north-south, arranged as a single-pile range with corridors facing the courtyard. Enclosed parterres lie to east and west, with the building raised on terrace above a sunken garden to the north where the ground falls away.

The western range consists of two storeys. At ground floor level are the entrance hall with southern porte cochère, library, drawing room and billiard room with dressing room. The first floor contains the main bedroom, sitting room and prince's dressing room. A gallery occupies the courtyard side, with a rectangular dog-leg grand staircase projecting into the centre of the court.

The northern range is principally two storeys, continuing the principal apartments at ground floor level with an ante room at the north end of the gallery, dining room and prince's apartments at first floor. Its eastern section rises to three storeys, housing service accommodation and set back from the main elevation, with corridors throughout on the courtyard side.

The southern range is three storeys, similarly arranged with secondary scale and a rectangular scale and platt stair projecting into the north-east and south-east angles of the court.

The south (entrance) elevation displays a main three-storey symmetrical seven-bay range with timber mullioned and transomed windows of 3-2-3-2-3-2-3 lights. The upper floors of the 3rd and 5th bays are corbelled out and rise into gablets, whilst the 1st and 7th bays rise into dormerheads. The roof is divided into three sections by crowstepped chimney gables. At the western end, an asymmetrical gable rises from a two-storey section with a single two-light window at first floor, a crowstepped gable with slit windows set on a corbel table linking circular angle turrets, and a single-storey porte cochère projecting with semi-elliptical carriage arches on the east and west faces and a semicircular arch on the south face. The octagonal angles of the porte cochère feature crosslets, heavy corbelling and a crenellated parapet. The eastern angle tower rises through five stages: three square stages with single-light windows, broached to an octagonal fourth stage with crosslets, and a set-back fifth stage with ogee roof rising from within a crenellated parapet.

The western elevation is two storeys in its main (northern three-quarters), with a shallow E-plan treatment symmetrical except for a circular three-stage north-west angle tower. The central drawing room section is recessed beneath a canted bay of 1-3-1 lights with sculptural reliefs at the spandrels and ball-finalled balustraded parapet. Flanking bays of 2-light windows with crenellated parapets form projecting gable fronts for the library and billiard room sections, each with a 3-light window on both floors and circular angle turrets whose corbelling continues across the wall face and steps over the 1st floor windows. The south entrance hall section comprises two 2-light windows at ground floor with a corbelled oriel of the dressing room above.

The northern elevation presents the frontage of the principal apartments across two storeys and five bays with a corbelled chimneybreast adjacent to the north-west tower. Most bays contain 2-light windows except at the 4th bay from the west, where a canted bay of 1-3-1 lights has a corbelled parapet and concave roof. A balustraded balcony at first floor in the 2nd bay from the west shelters a garden entrance at the north end of the gallery. The eastern section rises to three storeys across two bays of 2-light windows with dormerheads at 2nd floor level and a gabled square angle turret corbelled out diagonally at the north-east angle.

The eastern elevation is three storeys, with the crowstepped gable end of the south range set back from the south-east tower showing 1 and 2-light windows on each floor. The remainder comprises 5 bays treated similarly to the 5 central bays of the south elevation. The north gable is masked by a service wing link to the Great Tower.

The east wing extends as a two-storey, five-bay range of corridors and service accommodation with depressed pointed-arch headed windows at ground floor and semicircular dormerhead parapets with truncated armorial panels and ball-finials at first floor.

The Great Tower rises approximately 80 feet high from a 35-foot square base, with a circular north-east stair tower rising to 100 feet surmounted by a balustraded parapet. The tower comprises five stages with rounded angles at the upper stages. The lowest stage features hammer-dressed rustication with segment-headed windows, a panel of the Royal Arms of Scotland over the centre window on the south face, and an impressive hoodmoulded doorpiece for servants and luggage with a further armorial panel at the centre of the east face. Lower floors originally housed pages' apartments with 2 windows each at the 1st and 2nd floors, a segment-headed window with balustraded balcony on the south face, a plain window with balcony on the north face, 3 windows on the west face and 2 windows on the east face at the 3rd floor level. The 4th floor level accommodates the clock stage. Circular angle turrets with conical roofs corbelled from mid-way up the clock stage rise at the north-west, south-west and south-east angles, enclosing crenellated parapets over deep dummy machicolation. A clock by Frederick Dent of London was installed in 1856. The kitchen court sits at a lower diagonal level to the north-east, partly screened by the clock tower.

Throughout the building, small-paned sash windows predominate, with 8-pane lights at the link block and 12-pane at the Great Tower.

The ballroom stands detached from the main castle, except for a later service link, at the lower kitchen court level overlooking the sunken north garden. Its orangery-like form comprises a five-bay rectangle measuring approximately 74 feet by 31 feet externally and 68 feet by 25 feet internally. It is constructed of hammer-dressed masonry with an ashlar crenellated parapet. Four-centred-arched windows with Y-tracery and transoms light the interior, with a sculptured relief panel at the centre of the parapet. A dais recess on the east side breaks through to the kitchen, and an orchestra gallery occupies the south end.

The kitchen and service court is planned around an irregular courtyard approximately 67 feet by 46 feet. The east range projects to the north and south of the remainder and returns eastwards at both ends to form a shallow forecourt. All ranges are finished in rough ashlar. The south range is two storeys with basement and railed area, stepping downwards to the east in the fall of ground with dormerheads only at the higher western section. The crowstepped gable of the east range projects between the higher and lower sections. The east range, originally symmetrically planned, was subsequently redesigned and enlarged to mainly two storeys with a three-storey block at the south end. Central bays are symmetrical with a broad angled entrance bay featuring a four-centred arch and narrow flanking bays with dormerheads. The north range rises to three storeys with basement, serving as servants' barracks with servants' hall and plain wallheads. The west range contains the central kitchen flanked by scullery and pantries, treated throughout in simple Scots vernacular style with sash windows predominantly of 12- and 9-pane design.

The garden layout, created between 1855 and 1859, comprises formal parterres to the east and west of the main block and a north terrace.

The western parterre is enclosed by a dwarf wall with ball-finalled die blocks at gates and angles, decorative iron gates and a central basin. A balustraded stairway of two flights descends to the sunken garden to the north.

The eastern parterre is likewise enclosed by a dwarf wall with concave footgate approaches to the south and east and a concave south-east angle. Large octagonal urns mark the entrance gate die blocks, with small finials at the angle die blocks. A basin occupies the centre. The parterre is now turfed over as a lawn.

The north terrace features a retaining wall with pilaster strips and corbelled wallheads between bearing a low plain parapet, with a basin at the central bay and terrace stairs.