Gartmore House

Gartmore House

Originally dating from the mid-18th century but substantially altered and enlarged, Gartmore House is a prominent country house situated to the north-east of Gartmore village at the top of a hill overlooking the Forth Valley. It is constructed of roughcast with dressed stone margins and features steeply pitched French pavilion and mansard roofs with generous balustrading throughout.

The north-west entrance elevation comprises a two-storey main block with basement and attic, centred by a three-stage frontispiece tower, flanked by single and two-storey wings with flat roofs and balustraded parapets. The south-east elevation, facing formal terraced lawns at a lower ground level, is two-storey with a generous basement and attic. It is composed of a central section of five bays with two broad full-height canted bays of three windows to the south-west and north-east ends, which dominate the façade.

Historical Development

Gartmore House began as a restrained two-storey and basement mansion. In 1779-80, architect John Baxter Junior enlarged it and added the canted bays to the south-east front. The Graham family held the house as their seat until 1900. In that year, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham ('Don Roberto') sold the estate to Sir Charles Cayzer, the shipping magnate. Cayzer commissioned architect David Barclay to entirely reconstruct the house in 1901-2, removing everything but the outside walls and adding the entrance tower and mansard roofs. The architectural firm Thoms & Wilkie of Dundee carried out further alterations to the wings in 1910, raising them to two storeys with single-storey outshots and adding two-storey extensions into the south and east re-entrants between the wings and main block. In the south re-entrant, below the upper floor, a two-storey round-arched loggia with a balconied first floor was inserted.

Entrance Tower and External Features

The north-west elevation is dominated by a highly ornamented three-stage tower, machicolated with a balustraded parapet and crenellated circular stair tower. A central round-arched doorway with a pedimented tripartite window is surmounted by round-arched bipartite windows above. Above the door, the Cayzer family motto reads: CAUTE SED IMPAVIDE ('cautiously but fearlessly'). An inscription within an aedicule states: 'GARTMORE HOUSE, ENTIRELY REBUILT EXCEPT OUTSIDE WALLS BY SIR CHARLES CAYZER MP, 1901 1902, DAVID BARCLAY FRIBA, ARCHITECT GLASGOW.'

The main block features pedimented roof dormers to both north-west and south-east elevations, some with vaguely Art Nouveau ornament, above plain ashlar corniced parapets.

Materials and Construction Details

The building has roughcast walls with ashlar margins, parapets, eaves cornice, quoin strips and balustrades. Roofs are covered in graded grey slates. The north-west entrance features an impressive recessed timber and glazed panelled doorpiece with side lights and a semicircular fanlight with decorative Art Nouveau stained glass. The predominant windows are timber sash and case, with those to the ground floor set in round-arched, keystoned openings. Distinctive wall-head ashlar stacks are corbelled, consoled, pedimented and corniced. Some cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers remain in place.

Interior

All principal rooms have timber-panelled walls, low-relief plastered ceilings and broken Baroque pediments over doorways framed by lugged architraves, all from the 1901-2 rebuilding. The timber-panelled vestibule in Barclay's entrance tower features Art Nouveau stained glass to the screen door and opens into a long central entrance hall with painted oak panelling to door height. An oak-panelled chimneypiece with overmantle has a fireplace surround of green-veined marble with roll-and-hollow-moulded detail. A substantial timber staircase with Mannerist forms in the balustrades and newel posts rises centrally.

A series of principal rooms occupy the building, with those currently used as a chapel and drawing room situated in the canted outer bays at either end of the south-east garden elevation, overlooking the terraced lawns and Forth Valley. The south-west outer wing houses the Cayzer Room, which features an impressive painted frieze depicting historic ships. The house now functions as a hotel, and all first-floor bedrooms have been comprehensively modernised.

Former Stable Block

To the north-west of the house stands a much-altered two-storey, U-shaped former stable block. The central block comprises three bays with a decorative pediment, clock and bellcote to centre, beneath which sits the Cayzer coat of arms. Gablets crown the outer windows above eaves level. Two flanking blocks have large glazed areas to the ground floor, possibly originally garage doors. The eaves of dormer pediments over first-floor windows project unusually well beyond the wall planes.

The courtyard is enclosed by a curtain wall with a central gateway of ashlar segmental-arch construction with cornice and raised entablature, flanked by a pair of timber gates. Lower wing walls with blind window openings flank this gateway. Two wrought-iron weathervanes surmount the bellcote apex and gateway top, dated 1902 and 1793 respectively. The stable block is rendered with ashlar dressings, multipane timber sash and case windows, piended slate roofs and tall ashlar corniced stacks.

Although the stable block appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1859-64 and may originally date from 1793, it was extensively remodelled in 1902. It was further enlarged in the 1950s with the addition of a large sports hall and dormitories to the rear (south-west).

Designed Landscape, Gardens and Boundary Features

The house is surrounded by its own designed landscape. To the south-east lie terraced lawns defined by long balustrading similar to that forming the parapets of the house. A walled garden is located at some distance to the north-east (separately listed), with parkland incorporating woods and lakes beyond, much of which is now in separate ownership.

The policies are bounded by random rubble walls in varying states of repair with copes set on end. Two formal entrances serve the estate: via Gartartan Lodge (1902) from the north-east (separately listed) and from the south-west through the Village Gate of 1790 (separately listed). Two further entrances exist: Crinigart Lodge to the north-west (not listed, 2004) and South Lodge to the south-east (not listed, 2004). Both latter lodges have square-plan gatepiers with ashlar capstones.