St Brides Castle

St Brides Castle is a country house of 1833 with significant additions of 1906. The main structure is built of roughcast rubble stone, with the 1906 additions executed in red sandstone ashlar. Slate roofs are concealed behind battlemented parapets.

The original 1833 house rises to two storeys with a three-storey centre tower. The present main tower, added in 1906, extends to four storeys. The east garden front displays a 3-1-3-bay arrangement, while the north entrance front is organised as 2-2-2 bays. Both fronts are battlemented with octagonal corner turrets. Moulded dripcourses run beneath the first-floor sills and parapets. Large six-pane timber mullion-and-transom windows are set beneath stucco hoodmoulds.

The east front centrepiece consists of a tower with a corbelled parapet and no stringcourses. Below the original second-floor window sits a fine red sandstone mullion-and-transom windowed two-storey bay window added in 1906.

The north entrance front features a tall castellated chimney stack to the left of a centre projection. At the centre is a large three-bay Tudor-Gothic open porch with octagonal turrets and battlements. Each side contains Tudor-arched windows flanking a Tudor-arched half-glazed double door. The right side was built up in 1906 to form a tall tower adding two storeys with similar windows (but with red stone sills), a corbelled embattled parapet, and carrying up the north-west angle turret. A much larger octagonal stair turret is positioned at the rear south-east of the tower, similarly embattled. A three-storey two-window block with an embattled front parapet and similar detailing adjoins to the right, largely of 1906 as indicated by red stone sills.

A curving embattled screen wall of plain roughcast with seven windows runs towards the stable court entry to the west. The service court entrance arch, set at right angles, is embattled rubble stone with a large Tudor-arched entry and corbelled battlements above.

The south front originally consisted of 1-3-1 bays, battlemented with similar octagonal angle turrets and taller square turrets on the inner angles of the projecting outer bays (the turrets may be additions, as they bear 1906 dates). The ground-floor windows are plain; the upper windows are hoodmoulded, with the centre and outer first-floor windows being broader. The left bay now has a large 1906 red sandstone two-storey bay window added, which disrupts the original symmetry. Beyond to the left is a plain two-storey two-window embattled range. A service wing added in 1906 to the left represents an unusual interpretation of Scots Baronial with Edwardian freedom. It is essentially a three-storey roughcast block with sash windows, over which crow-stepped gables are placed above the three centre bays. The resulting symmetry is broken by positioning the two chimneys between the first two gables and to the right of the third. The chimneys are corbelled out from the first floor and feature deep mock crenellations. The wing has a double roof with crow-stepped gable ends; the west end facing the service court has a parapet between end stacks. The rear north side displays a similar pair of stepped dormer gables flanking a wall-face stack.

A considerable amount of high-quality interior detail from the 1830s survives. The entrance hall features a stone-flag floor, coffered plaster ceiling, and panelled doors to the sides with architraves, friezes, and plain cornices. A free-style 1906 stone fireplace to the west has a Tudor-arched fireplace with shelf and ornate carved arms set between two columns supporting flat flanking pieces beneath an exceptionally steep open pediment. A corner door leads to a winding stone stair serving the tower.

An arch opens through to the stair hall, which contains a fine cantilevered stone stair rising on three sides to a stone landing carried on a deep coved soffit, with cast-iron rococo-style balusters. A large centre ceiling rose and a substantial arched west window with intersecting tracery glazing bars light the space. The three west front rooms feature fine neo-Grec anthemion friezes and heavily modelled acanthus centre roses. The centre room has an octagonal ceiling centrepiece with niches in the diagonal corners. Six-panel doors in architraves with cornices open from these rooms. The rooms above display similar doors and cornices.