Corrienessan, Loch Ard

Corrienessan is a compact country house built in the later 19th century, designed by J.J. Burnet of Burnet Son and Campbell. It is constructed of bullfaced red sandstone with half-timbered gables, blending Scots Baronial and American Art and Crafts detailing. The house has a roughly rectangular plan, with two projecting wings to the rear dedicated to service quarters. It exemplifies the work of a notable Scottish architect.

The approach from Aberfoyle presents the north elevation first, where a subservient three-bay harled service wing sits to the left of a tall, two-story jettied and gabled half-timbered bay. A veranda runs along the west front, wrapping around from the north elevation and incorporating a half-timbered dormer beneath a lean-to roof.

The south entrance elevation, overlooking a steep drop to the Avondu river, features more Baronial detailing. The veranda continues from the west side, leading to a central advanced gabled bay with crowsteps and a rounded, corbelled-out corner. A datestone of 1887, decorated with a carved thistle, sits at the bay’s apex. A lower two-story, three-bay section is to the right, where the entrance door is sheltered by a deep, slated lean-to roof supported on timber brackets; the entrance features large, two-leaf timber-boarded doors with ornamental hinges in a moulded round-arched opening.

The east elevation comprises three bays, with an advanced bay to the left featuring a jettied timbered gable, and an advanced piended bay to the right.

Inside, the mosaic-floored entrance hall provides access to a gun room with original fitted cupboards, and steps leading down to a reception hall with timber-panelled walls and a classical timber chimneypiece. Herringbone parquet floors with geometric borders and simple plasterwork are found throughout the ground floor rooms. The dining room includes a large pulvinated timber chimneypiece with an overmantel mirror. A timber dog-leg staircase with straight and barley-sugar twist balusters is located to the left of the reception hall. A built-in Arts and Crafts cupboard is found in the first-floor corridor. The service quarters retain original fitted cupboards and a sink in the pantry.

The house is primarily built from coursed bullfaced red sandstone, with some harled areas. The windows are mostly timber casements with multi-paned sections, with leaded rectangular quarries in the service wings, and timber sash and case windows to the crowstepped gable. The roofs are pitched and piended, with bracketted eaves, and tall bullfaced sandstone wallhead stacks. Cast iron rainwater goods with ornamental hoppers are also present.

To the west of the house, square-plan red sandstone gatepiers are flanked by curved rubble wing walls, topped with stone thistle finials (one broken).