Auchendennan Castle

Auchendennan Castle

A substantial 3-storey rambling Baronial chateau designed by John Burnet between 1864 and 1866, with significant additions by A N Paterson in 1902. The building is constructed of stugged, squared and snecked sandstone with ashlar margins and dressings, featuring a battered base course, roll-moulded and chamfered arrises, string courses, and advanced eaves.

The main east elevation is asymmetrical with four bays. A Scottish Renaissance porte cochere designed by A N Paterson in 1902 projects from the outer left bay, featuring round-arched coach openings with banded voussoirs and guttae in the spandrels. Compound banded corner piers are decorated with applied fluted pilasters and ashlar turret-like caps with Doric detailing and console finials. The porte cochere carries a strapwork parapet above a heavily detailed pedimented armorial plaque. The interior features an ashlar rib vault with a central boss bearing the monogram JWJ. A round-arched entrance porch has ashlar ribbing and a roll-moulded basket-arched door set within a roll-moulded round-arch, with decorative detail overdoor bearing a faded date of 1899. A stone seat to the right has a roll-moulded shouldered arch for pedestrian access and an urn balustraded parapet.

The four-bay main block includes an advanced round-tower bay to the outer right with a battered base and a window at ground level. Three closely-grouped windows at first-floor level spring from paired banded colonnettes with segmental heads, while two windows at upper floor rest on a stepped string course. A decorative pierced parapet is supported on a sandstone corbel course. A taller crowstepped bay to the left contains a tripartite window at ground and first-floor levels, with the ground window being smaller, and a bipartite window at upper floor with a single window in the attic gable. A 3-storey and attic pavilion-roofed bay advances at the penultimate left, with a stepped battered base, circular ventilation opening with cast-iron grid, and two stepped bipartite stair windows. Piered roundel windows feature ashlar mullions and transoms, with circular pierced upper windows. A large bipartite window at upper floor is carried on a sandstone corbelled course. The pavilion roof crowns the composition with a square dormer featuring Jacobean strapwork pediment. Above the porte cochere a large tripartite window has strapwork detail above, while a segmental-headed window at the centre of the upper floor breaks the eaves with its pediment. Cast-iron bracketed eaves complete the elevation.

The south elevation presents six asymmetrically disposed bays with a conservatory to the outer left. A tall 2-bay 4-storey tower rises over a raised basement at the outer left, accessed by a stair to a round-arched door with rope-moulded hoodmould. Two round-arched windows at basement level are fitted with decorative cast-iron guards, while a corbelled tripartite oriel rises above. Two symmetrically disposed windows appear at each floor, diminishing in scale from first to third floor, supported by a heavy corbelled course carrying an ashlar parapet with gunloops. A chateau-like 3-bay section to the outer right features a full-height bowed tower block at its centre, with upper windows displaying segmental pediments breaking the eaves and topped by a conical slate roof with lucarne dormers. Narrow symmetrical flanking bays flank this tower, with a basement door at the corner glazed with ashlar mullion and corbelled to a square arris above. A narrow crowstepped gabled bay slightly recessed to the outer right contains a 5-light Tudoresque square window projection at basement level with a single window above and a smaller window at second-floor level. A small domed oriel in the gablehead bears a sculpted cherubic face beneath a corbel.

The north elevation displays five near-symmetrical bays with a round tower to the outer left. A tall 3-storey and attic crowstepped gabled bay advances at the outer left, with a chamfered corner corbelled to square above first-floor level. Tripartite windows appear within the chamfer, with a single window rising to the gablehead, topped by strapwork. A tripartite window at second-floor level is echoed by a single window in the gablehead above. A 3-bay block recessed at the centre has round-headed narrow windows at ground level and three windows each at first and second floors, with ashlar blocking course and a segmental-headed dormerhead at centre. A crowstepped bartizaned gabled bay advances to the outer right, featuring tripartite windows at ground and first floors, with slightly jettied upper floors carried on sandstone corbelling. A small tripartite window appears at second floor with a single window in the gablehead. Bartizans with candlesnuffer roofs and tall lead finials crown the composition.

The west rear elevation is asymmetrical, with a conservatory at ground level to the outer right, a tall tower behind, and windows to the right where a round tower bay clasps the corner. A lean-to crowstepped bay projects to the left, with a crowstepped gable breaking the eaves at centre, flanked by chimney stacks. Two windows at upper floor and a window in the gablehead complete this elevation.

The conservatory employs stugged, squared and snecked sandstone with ashlar coping. Arranged in T-plan and attached to the main house, small ashlar colonnettes divide the windows into quadripartite sections, with canted ends and ashlar base course. Steps to a door on the main elevation access the interior. A glazed roof features decorative raised cast-iron panelled cresting.

Throughout, the building is fenestrated with timber plate glass sash and case windows. The roof employs grey slate with lead flashings, and chevron-patterned slate for the pavilions and bartizans. Broad corniced ridge stacks complete the roofline.

The interior, largely of early 20th-century character almost certainly designed by A N Paterson, begins with a vestibule featuring an inglenook to the left with leaded glass and oak panelling decorated with clan name plaques. An ashlar chimneypiece, its fireplace now blocked by a modern insert, displays heavy carving with cherubic angel and large female seated figures beneath an inscription reading "Welcome ever smiles farewell goes out sighing" above a plaque inscribed "Ad Augusta per Angusta". A pierced wooden screen leads to an oak-panelled corridor and ceiling, with cherubic heads supporting the cornice. The main stair is panelled with a niche, retaining original green and gold wallpaper.

From the landing, a Renaissance-detailed door opens to a large gallery featuring a coombed ceiling with low-relief plaster and paired large brackets carved with grotesques supporting a cast-iron open balustrade. A glazed hammer-beamed roof carries low-relief carving on either side, with mythological groupings inscribed "Peace be with all who neath this roof tree rest" and on the opposite side "Peace with the coming and the parting guest". A wooden chimneypiece features a stone basket-arched fireplace inscribed "East West Hames Best". The upper stair is now glazed behind a modern screen serving dormitories.

Rooms open symmetrically from the gallery. That to the left features Art Nouveau detailing, a fireplace and built-in furniture, with a door inlaid with floral details and a wooden cornice punctuated by small carved heads at regular intervals. The drawing room to the right displays low-relief plasterwork ceiling with bosses and Jacobethan carved wooden detailing. Its chimneypiece is topped with a 1992 painting, with painted plasterwork along the picture rail. Sepia-stained glass windows are notable: the main window depicts Wisdom, Cheerfulness, Liberality and Temperance, a smaller window to the left shows Industry, while Justice, Fortitude and Faith appear to the right. A dining room retains original tapestry and features a decorative coffered ceiling with a tripartite full-height Renaissance-detailed chimneypiece and built-in service furniture. A spiral cast-iron stair serves the space.

The grounds include a terrace wall, fountain and garden statuary. The fountain has a quatrefoil-shaped basin with a central pedestal adorned with dolphins and shells, though its original crowning bronze eagle has been stolen. A balustraded ashlar terrace wall with sturdy balusters and saddleback coping is punctuated by obelisk-capped piers, with curved stone seats integrated throughout. Numerous garden urns are dotted across the grounds.