Black Bull Hotel, The Square, Gartmore

The Black Bull Hotel, located in The Square, Gartmore, is a substantial public house built in the late 18th or early 19th century. It stands three stories tall and features three bays, making it the only three-storey building in Gartmore and one of the most prominent structures in the area. The hotel is situated in the planned estate village of Gartmore, which was designed by Nicol Graham and his descendants in the 18th century. Originally constructed as an inn, it has significant streetscape and historical value. Although it has lost its slate roof and stacks, the exterior remains largely unchanged, and the inn has been an important part of Gartmore's social history.

The principal elevation is symmetrical, with a central door flanked by single windows. At the rear, there is a lower two-storey M-pile wing with a later addition of a single-storey, flat-roofed entrance on the side elevation, which provides access from Main Street to the public bar. Additionally, there is a long single-storey extension from the 20th century on the southeast side.

Inside, the hotel has been extensively modernised and includes a public bar, lounge bar, restaurant, and function room located in the 20th-century extension.

The building is constructed of roughcast with painted cills, a base course, corner margins, and a band course, featuring a sign at the centre. It has four-pane timber sash and case windows that diminish in size through the storeys. The front door is a two-leaf timber panelled design with a four-pane fanlight above and a modern glazed timber inner door. The roofs are pitched and covered with modern concrete tiles, while the rear wing retains graded grey slates. The building has roughcast coped gablehead stacks with yellow circular clay cans on the rear wing and timber bargeboards on the main block. Some cast-iron rainwater goods are also present.