Garden Pavilion, Williamcraigs House

Building: Garden Pavilion, Williamcraigs House

A substantial Scots Baronial villa dating to 1878, built as a 2-storey, 3-bay L-plan composition with a circular stair tower positioned to the south. A rear wing was raised and an entrance porch added around 1925 to the east elevation. The main structure is constructed in bull-faced cream snecked sandstone rubble with ashlar rubble detailing, ashlar dressings to the canted bays, and ashlar to the former doorcase and other dressings. The base course is battered, and the crowstepped gables feature beak skewputts to the north entrance elevations.

The north entrance elevation presents three bays with a slightly advanced lower gabled bay at the centre, distinguished by a fine doorcase displaying Scots Renaissance detail. The doorway itself, now blocked and converted to a window, features an architraved round-headed arch supported on decorative consoles with ornate buckle quoins, a keystone flanked by foliated bosses, and a cill course above leading to a window flanked by a string course. A recessed wallhead stack sits to the left. The flanking bays to right and left rise taller; the right bay contains a 4-light canted window at ground and first-floor levels with a round-arched gablehead window above, while the left bay features an advanced squared tripartite window with a stone roof at ground level, a bipartite window at first floor with a decorative panel above, and an overstepped hoodmould with carved label stops and a carved round terminating the gable. A single-storey crenellated porch to the outer left provides a round-arched entrance with architraved surrounds, keystone, and impost blocks, with stone steps leading through to inner 2-leaf panelled doors.

The east elevation is asymmetrical, with a 3-storey advanced gabled bay positioned off-centre left (its upper storey being a later addition), fenestrated at each floor level. A single-storey lean-to porch is set within a re-entrant angle to the left, while a low segmental projection with slate roof sits in a re-entrant angle to the right, featuring a tripartite window at ground level. Above this is a corbelled gabled bipartite window with a carved panel in the gablehead. The stair tower breaks the eaves to the right, presenting a corbelled eaves course, cornice, and conical slate roof topped with a weathervane. An entrance porch on the outer right has a crowstepped dormerhead window with a thistle finial above, and a tall wallhead stack rises to the right.

The south (rear) elevation is asymmetrical, dominated by a 3-storey advanced block to the right with a later-added upper storey. Two gabled bays recessed to the left feature apex stacks and are abutted by single-storey gabled wings of differing lengths. A bipartite window to the right has a short forestair and timber porch door, whilst a door to the left is accompanied by a canted window behind it.

The west elevation comprises two symmetrical gabled bays, each with apex stacks and segmental-headed windows with hoodmould at first-floor level. A modern single-storey lean-to conservatory occupies the centre, with a window to the right.

Windows throughout display considerable variety, including plate glass sash and case, modern aluminium frames to the north elevation, and plate glass lower with multi-pane upper sashes in the tower window. The roof is covered in grey slate with a modern rooflight to the north, and round-headed dormers project from the south, west, and east elevations.

Interior features include a stone stair with wrought-iron balustrade, fine chimney pieces, and notable plasterwork.

The garden pavilion, dating to around 1880, is a charming single-storey hexagonal structure in the gothic style. It is timber clap-boarded on an ashlar base and roofed with red and grey felt fishscale slates. A door features a later canopied gabled porch; to its right, a door is flanked by windows beneath a canopied roof decorated with timber trim. A canted squared bay stands to the left, with canted pointed Venetian windows positioned to three sides and a continuous lean-to roof overhead. Continuous quatrefoil pierced panels to the clerestorey sit beneath bracketed overhanging eaves finished with timber trim.

A pair of tall ashlar gatepiers with pulvinated frieze, conical and simple caps, and chamfered arises form the entrance, though the gates themselves are missing.