School House, Mill Of Sterin

The School House at Mill of Sterin is a T-plan school and schoolhouse dating to around 1855. The building is harled with granite dressings.

The school section faces west with a three-bay elevation. A gabled porch projects from the centre, featuring a segmental-arched doorway with a panelled door and plate glass fanlight, and narrow windows on its returns. The left return is blind. Gabled end elevations incorporate round-arched attic windows, while a further window is set into the south elevation. A later lean-to porch is located in the re-entrant angle to the rear, with a part-glazed door and a small flanking window. The school room adjoins to the left.

The schoolroom is a gabled wing running east-west, attached to the south of the schoolhouse. It has three windows facing south and two windows facing north, with a smaller window, possibly for a bathroom, to the right. A later timber-framed gabled addition is set into the east gable end, featuring exposed timber framing in the gablehead.

The schoolhouse windows are small-pane sash and case windows with a prominent vertical astragal at the centre, designed to resemble the appearance of bipartite casements – a characteristic detail associated with the architectural practice of J and W Smith between approximately 1830 and 1848. The schoolroom has similarly detailed fixed windows with top-hoppers, while the smaller windows are 4-pane sash and case. The building has overhanging eaves and is roofed with graded grey slates. Harled stacks are detailed with ashlar dressings. A metal ventilator is positioned on the schoolroom roof, and modern rooflights are present at the rear.

The name Sterin derives from the original name for Birkhall, referencing stepping stones across the River Muick. The school is believed to be part of Prince Albert’s initiatives for improving the lives of the labouring classes. Around 1852, a new school was built near Birkhall, with space for 50-60 scholars and rooms for the teacher. The school and schoolhouse are dignified and well-detailed. The building is located within the Cairngorms National Park.