Ross Priory

Ross Priory

A 2-storey mansion over basement built between 1810 and 1816 by J Gillespie Graham, incorporating earlier fabric from 1695 and the 18th century. The house is constructed of honey-coloured sandstone ashlar with ashlar margins and dressings, arranged on a rectangular plan with 7 bays. It features narrow octagonal corner towers topped with tall crocketted pinnacles and a pierced hexagonal-shaped balustrade.

The main east elevation presents a symmetrical design dominated by a broad sweeping perron stair leading to the entrance at centre. The entrance itself is set within a tripartite pointed arch portico-in-antis with gabletted, crocketted pier divisions and is flanked by a pierced cusped blind balustrade above. The inner 2-leaf entrance door features gothic Y-tracery glazing. At the principal floor, a quadripartite window of narrow lancets sits at the centre, flanked by gabletted piers with crockets and a criss-cross cusped pierced balustrade parapet above. The three flanking bays are symmetrically disposed with windows arranged bipartite, tripartite and bipartite. Basement windows feature plain Y-tracery within pointed arches, while trefoil-headed windows sit within pointed arches at principal floor and cusp-headed windows occupy the upper floor. The octagonal corner towers contain blind arrowslits and balustrades.

The north elevation has 2 broad bays, with a gently bowed full-height bay to the outer left flanked by towers and 3 sets of bipartite windows. A broad bay to the outer right contains tripartite windows at each floor.

The rear west elevation is rendered with red sandstone margins and dressings, presenting a plainer appearance. It comprises a 3-storey, 6-bay block to the left with a 2-bay lower storey block to the right. Two bays at the centre are slightly advanced, featuring a half-glazed door flanked by windows. The flanking 2 bays contain windows with gothic glazing at first floor and 12-pane sash and case windows elsewhere. The lower block to the outer right has 4-pane sash and case windows.

The south elevation combines a red sandstone rubble lower block to the left with a rendered main body featuring red sandstone margins and dressings, and an ashlar block to the outer right with tripartite windows.

Throughout the building, windows vary between 4-pane, 8-pane and 12-pane sash and case designs. The roof is of grey slate with lead flashings and is surmounted by a broad pedestal ridge stack with offset tall ashlar cans.

The interior includes a vestibule with delicate decorative plasterwork and a large ceiling rosette with ribs carried into squinches supported on mask corbels. Deep-set doors are panelled in dark wood. A cantilevered stone stair with delicate cast-iron balusters and wooden rail rises within a stair hall lit by an oval lantern. The west dining room features geometric plasterwork on the ceiling and an acanthus-leaf cornice, with a marble fireplace.

To the southwest of the house is a walled garden of square plan, representing an early 20th-century remodelling of an earlier design. The garden is enclosed by a rubble wall with ashlar slab coping and features rubble clairvoyée openings along its walks.

The site was the original seat of the Buchanans of Ross from about the 14th century. The 1695 house that occupied the site forms part of the fabric of the present priory. During renovation by Gillespie Graham, the original wings were removed and the house was enlarged to the north and east. Sir Walter Scott frequented the house in 1817 while writing Rob Roy. Stylistically, the building compares with Crawford Priory (David Hamilton, 1809; James Gillespie Graham, 1811–13) and Newbyth (Archibald Elliot, 1817). The house is now a club owned by Strathclyde University and has undergone grant-aided repairs involving substantial stone replacement. Ross Lodge, the stables and the Buchanan Burial Ground are listed separately.