Building record MAB33618 - BALNABOTH HOUSE, GLEN PROSEN

Mansion house and farmstead, still in use, within a designed landscape (NO36NW0062).

Mansion house and farmstead, still in use, within a designed landscape (NO36NW0062). It is on the site of, and incorporates, various separate houses that begun development in the 16th century. There is a detached vaulted cellar, possibly from the 17th century. Plans for a new house by R and R Dickson, architects, Edinburgh, were drawn up in 1820, but not carried out. It was then formed into a mansion house in 1823-4 by David A. Whyte, joining a rear wing, possibly dating to the 18th century. It is a slightly disjointed house of irregular heights. It is an irregular a U-plan house, open roughly to the South, but with the earlier rear wing to the North-West. The Western wing of the U-plan house was extensively altered, possibly rebuilt, at this time, and there have been later additions and alterations. It is a two-storey yellow-harled house with red painted margins and dressings. The Eastern wing has five bays on the West elevation, with a central doorway and single ground and first floor off-centre windows on the South gable end. There is a full-height single-bay central projection on the East elevation, and a wing is shown on the 1st and 2nd edition OS maps off the North end of this wing, but no longer there. The North wing is of the same height, but the three first floor windows break the wallhead in piended dormers. The Western side of the elevation is bare, aside from a single first floor window that does not break the wallhead, and it is covered by a single-storey, three-sided, flat-roofed porch, filling the angle between it and the West wing. This porch was probably added in the late-19th century. The West wing was heightened during its alterations/rebuilding in 1823-4, and, although it remains two-storey, it is significantly taller than the others. There are large rectangular ground and first floor windows on the East-facing elevation, with four on the first floor, and two on the ground floor. The Northern end of the elevation is covered by later the three-sided porch. There is a central oculus to the attic, with the top of the window touching the wallhead. The South gable end has two first floor windows, similar to those on the East elevation, and two smaller windows above them, within the gable. There are no ground floor windows. The West elevation of the West wing has an off-centre, full-height projecting bay, with a low single-storey porch projecting further off it. To the South of this bay, the elevation has two ground floor windows only. To the North, there are three bays, with a central single-storey entrance porch with flanking windows, and three windows above. There is a single attic window above these breaking the wallhead within a piended dormer. The possibly 18th century rear wing to the North-West of this U-plan house is an L-plan range. It joins the Northern end of the West wing, and then orients roughly East/West. It is a two-storey wing, dropping again to the height of the East and North wings. Projecting South from the Western end of this wing is a modern garage, which replaces an earlier square pyramidal-roofed building, which had columns at the angles supporting projecting eaves. This earlier building was taller, and not attached to the L-plan wing as the garage now is. The roofs are all slate, and mostly gabled, with piended roofs to the projecting bay, porches and garage. There are ridge and end stacks. To the East of the mansion house is the steading and farmhouse, made up from various buildings, some dating to the 18th century. The steading comprises a two-storey whitewashed rubble farmhouse, and various farm buildings. Some of the margins and dressings are painted the same red as what is seen on the mansion house. On the 1st edition OS map, it is shown as a U-plan steading open to the South, and projecting East from the North wing is a slightly lower wing. The Eastern elevation at South end of the Eastern wing is slightly projecting. Directly to the East of this wing, an unroofed building is depicted. On the 2nd edition OS map, this has gone, as has the projecting section to the East wing. The Eastern end of the North wing has had a new wing added, projecting South to roughly half the length of the earlier East and West wings. It therefore becomes a wider U-plan range, where the earlier East wing becomes a wing projecting from the centre. A new small rectangular building is shown just off the end of this central wing. Now, there are two additional timber-built wings built within the court created by the Eastern wing and the central wing, and a third timber wing to the East of the Eastern wing. There has been a porch added to the Eastern face of what is now the central wing, under a gabled dormer, and there remains a small, low timber building to the South of the central wing. The roofs of the earlier buildings are slate, and the later East wing has a corrugated-iron roof, as do the timber wings.

Period Notes
Mansion built in 1823-4, incorporating separate houses, the earliest from the 16th century, and an 18th century rear range. There is a possible 17th century vaulted cellar, and a late-19th century porch. The steading is made up of various buildings, from the 18th century through to modern. The mansion was listed on 11/06/1971, and the steading on 15/01/1980.

DALLAND, M, 1998, BALNABOTH ESTATE,GLEN PROSEN : ARCH. SURVEY, 26 (Bibliographic reference). SAB2434.

Record last edited

Jul 10 2019 11:37AM