Birkhall

Birkhall is a substantial laird's house of 1715, built by Captain Charles Gordon, which has been enlarged and modified significantly over subsequent centuries. The original structure is a 2-storey house with attic and basement, arranged in 5 bays. It was purchased by Prince Albert in 1849 for the Prince of Wales, later transferring to the Queen on Prince Albert's death. Florence Nightingale visited in September and October 1856 as the guest of Her Majesty to recuperate after her efforts in the Crimean War.

The house is harled with some exposed granite dressings. The southeast elevation displays the principal facade of the original 1715 house, with 5 bays and a roll-moulded surround to the central door approached by a flight of granite steps with decorative iron railings. The door lintel is carved with the date and the initials 'CG' and 'RG', and features a 2-leaf, part-glazed door with a square armorial panel above in a heavy, moulded surround. Windows occupy the outer basement bays and the bays flanking the door at ground and first floor level. Three piend-roofed, slate-hung dormers of later 19th-century date are positioned above. The northwest elevation shows the later wing to its left with a contemporary round stair tower in the re-entrant angle, featuring small windows and a conical roof. A window at ground and first floor to the left opens to a later lean-to porch across the raised basement. The northeast elevation presents a 2-bay gable end with an advanced chimneybreast circa 1850 at its centre, flanked at ground and first floor by windows.

In 1850, James Henderson of Kildrummy designed a 3-bay, 2-storey and attic wing at right angles to the rear, re-orienting the entrance. The northeast elevation of this 1850 wing displays 3 bays, with a door in the left-hand bay (centre of the elevation) featuring a timber porte cochère. The door surround is stop-chamfered with a part-glazed door and etched glass fanlight, sheltered by a gabled porte cochère with 4 tree trunk columns, segmental arched stays, and a boarded soffit. This porte cochère has been infilled by the house with fixed windows serving as wind breaks and cantilevered corner benches providing corner seats. Windows occupy the upper position and each floor in the remaining bays to the right. Three gabled, slate-hung dormers of later 19th-century date are positioned above. The northwest elevation of this wing is a blank gable end, masked to the right at ground level by a single-storey and basement late 19th-century (possibly) service addition.

Circa 1950, architect A Graham Henderson designed substantial additions. These comprise a 2-storey and raised basement wing with chamfered arrises at right angles, which adjoins and adapts an earlier single-storey early 20th-century wing on the southwest. This northwest addition has an irregular arrangement of openings, with the roof swept down to the southeast to single-storey eaves and a 2-stage round stair tower breaking the eaves. A single bay adjoins to the south with a narrow door, small window, and conical roof to the tower. A 2-storey, asymmetrical wing runs northwest-southeast adjoined at right angles, featuring a bowed 3-bay southeast elevation with windows to ground and first floor and a conical roof, and a 3-bay regularly fenestrated return to the northeast with a panel over the larger centre window and a small piend-roofed dormer. The southwest elevation displays a taller ridge to the left and a 3-bay bowed projection to the outer left; regular fenestration appears in 3 bays flanking to the right, with stair windows in the penultimate bay to the right, and the outer right bay is gabled and blank.

Throughout, sash and case windows employ a 12-pane glazing pattern. The building is roofed with graded grey slates, stone ridges and coped skews, and coped gablehead stacks.

A dining room fireplace and panelling were installed in 1926–27. The Duke and Duchess of York redecorated and planted the gardens in the 1930s.

Associated with the house are several outbuildings and garden features. A summer house, sited to the southwest of the house and dated circa 1935, is octagonal in plan and constructed of lathed timber with a gabled entrance and thatched roof; the interior is lined with boarded timber and benches. A wendy house, also circa 1935, stands to the east of the house. It is rectangular in plan, gabled, timber-framed and thatched, with bark-covered board cladding in chevron patterns below 2-leaf, diamond lead-paned casement windows and a central door. It has a turf ridge and timber stack, with a further door to the rear.

A decorative wrought- and cast-iron pedestrian garden gate stands to the east of the house, dated circa 1935, featuring vine and thistle motifs and flanked by iron cage piers with decorative thistle finials.

Formal gardens occupy the southeast with topiary, positioned below terraced ground created circa 1935. Granite steps lead down to a coped granite terrace wall, buttressed and featuring a door into the bank to a toolhouse or ice house; timber steps lead down from the terrace wall head to lower ground.

Birkhall forms a group with Birkhall Drive Bridge, the Larders, the Rope Bridge, and the Stables, all listed separately. The house evidences the sympathetic evolution of a significant estate with rich historical associations.