Boundary Walls And Gatepiers, Craigielee Including Fountain, Shore Road, Strone

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

Built c1840, Craigielee is one the best of the villas in Strone, and its early date anticipates the quality of the villas further N along the Blairmore shore, with more variation on the pattern book themes than most of those in Kilmun and Strone. The survival of a number of good original features such as the belvedere tower and painted glass, is of particular note.

Craigielee, asymmetrical, 3-bay and 2-storey, is made up of 2 advanced gabled blocks with the recessed entrance bay between them and a squat belvedere tower.

Craigielee is unusual in that it is set so far to the rear of the feu plot, with very little land to the rear, taking into account the steep slope to the rear. It seems that the house was built in two stages, as the 1st edition OS map appears to show no advancing wing on the right (NE). The left bay has a curved 3-light bay to the ground floor and a cast iron balustrade above to a small balcony accessed from the 2-light scroll-pedimented first floor window. The gabled wing on the right has a canted 2-storey bay, timber-clad to the apex. In the centre of the roof is the timber-clad square-plan, squat tower, with round-headed windows and a shallow pyramidal roof.

Interior: the interior contains a timber stair with cast iron balusters, marble fireplaces, Baroque timber pelmets, good quality plasterwork and some painted glass, including scenes of Kelso Abbey and Hagia Sofia.

Materials: predominantly rubble, with sandstone dressings. Graded grey slate roof, stone stacks and polygonal clay cans. Timber cladding to tower. Timber plate glass sash and case windows. Panelled timber front door.

Fountain, Boundary Walls: the long front garden contains a central 3-tier stone fountain. The boundary wall is of rubble, with square ashlar gatepiers to both the later main gate and the cast iron hand-gate.