Description

Almost certainly James Gillespie Graham, circa 1850 with later additions and alterations. Asymmetrical Scots Baronial style gate lodge comprising 2-storey, near square-plan entrance block with segmental-arched pend flanking drive at ground; engaged, 2-storey, circular-plan tower to SE corner; engaged, 3-storey with attic, circular-plan tower to NW corner; single storey wing adjoined to NW; lower, single storey addition beyond. Squared and snecked tooled red sandstone; sandstone ashlar dressings. Base course; moulded eaves (rope-moulded in part); corbelled and moulded eaves to towers (foliate frieze detail to NW); crenellated parapets; crowstepped gables. Stop-chamfered angles in part; stugged quoins; stugged long and short surrounds to openings; roll-moulded margins; flush cills. Crenellated screen walls recessed to outer left and right.

SW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 2-storey entrance block off-set to right of centre with large, 2-leaf boarded timber door centred at ground (decorative iron hinges); roll-moulded, segmental-arched surround with carved frieze; single window in small oriel aligned at 1st floor (decorative carving to corbelling); coat-of-arms centred in crowstepped gable; surmounting finial. Engaged, circular-plan tower to SE corner with small gun loops centred at ground and off-set to left at 1st floor; conical cap with tiered, sandstone ridging and surmounting finial. Larger, circular-plan tower to NW corner with irregularly-spaced, round-arched windows at all floors; small attic light in gabled and finialled dormer aligned above (corbelled detail beneath eaves); decorative finial surmounting grey slate conical cap. Single window centred in single storey wing recessed to outer left.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: entrance block off-set to left of centre with large, segmental-arched pend opening centred at ground (roll-moulded surround with carved frieze); 2-leaf, arched iron gates; 2-leaf boarded timber door set behind. Segmental-arched windows in both bays at 1st floor; coat-of-arms centred in crowstepped gable; surmounting stack. Blind arrowslit centred in single storey, engaged tower to SE corner; open bartizans to both corners at upper floor. Single window centred in single storey wing adjoined to right; open bartizans to each corner (adjoining entrance block to left). Single window in lower, single storey wing projecting to outer right.

Predominantly 8- and 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slate roofs; crowstepped skews. Corniced apex stacks; various cans. Prominent sandstone water spouts; some cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: pend with part-glazed, boarded timber door centred in NW elevation; blind, segmental-arched alcove to SE; ribbed, depressed-arch vault. Remainder not seen 1998.

SCREEN WALLS AND PIERS: squared and snecked tooled red sandstone curved screen walls flanking gate lodge with regularly-spaced arrowslits and crenellated parapets. Square-plan, coursed red sandstone piers to outer left and right; corbelled and tiered, shallow pyramidal caps.

Statement of Interest

B Group comprises 'Ayton Castle', 'Ayton Castle, Dovecot', 'Ayton Castle, North Lodge', 'Ayton Castle, South Lodge', 'Ayton Castle, Stable Courtyard' and 'Ayton Castle, Walled Garden' (see separate list entries). An impressive, well-detailed gate lodge, set to the SW of Ayton Castle and to the SE of Ayton Village. With close stylistic similarities to the castle, the lodge is almost certainly the work of Gillespie Graham, and remains a fine example of his small-scale Scots Baronial work.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17845597

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)