Coach House, Blair Athol

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

Blair Athol is a well-preserved example of a mid-19th century villa. The house, although relatively conventional in design, is well-detailed and a number of features such as the pilastered windows and the quatrefoil-pierced parapets are of interest. A 3-bay 1½-storey rectangular house with gabled half-dormer and ground-floor canted bays, Blair Athol also makes a significant contribution to the collection of buildings along the shore.

Built c1860, the villa has changed little since. The 3-bay front (E) elevation is symmetrical, with a central timber double door and a hood-mould. To either side of this are the canted bays, with quatrefoil-pierced stone parapets and pilastered mullions. The upper floor has 3 gabletted round-arched windows, the central one slightly lower. Each of the side elevations has 2 tall single windows on the ground floor. The rear of the house has 2 half-dormers and a single-storey projection. On the 1st edition map of c1863 there appears to be a small projection on the S of the rear wall, but by the map of c1898 this has been replaced with 2 parallel projections in the centre. Later, the area between the 2 pitch-roofed projections has been filled in with a flat-roofed block.

Interior: the interior contains a number of original features, including good plasterwork cornices and joinery.

Materials: painted ashlar to front elevation, rubble to sides and rear. Graded grey slate roof with stone stacks and polygonal clay cans. Concrete tiles to rear projection. Timber 2-leaf door. Timber sash and case windows, plate glass to the front and lying-pane to the rear.

Coach House And Boundary Walls: to the SW of the house is the rectangular-plan 2-storey rubble coach house. Although many features such as the doors and window remain to the side elevation, a low garage has been fixed to the front. The house is bounded by rubble walls, square-plan gatepiers have decorative pyramidal capstones.