Description

Alexander Thomson, 1855, with later alterations and additions. 2-storey (single storey to right), 4-bay asymmetrical villa (now divided) with 3-stage Italianate tower to right and modern, glazed entrance porch to left. Shallow gabled bays with overhanging eaves and exposed rafters and semicircular 7-light bay to centre. Stugged and snecked pink sandstone with polished and droved ashlar dressings. Base course; bossed eaves course to semicircular bay; eaves course to entrance bay to right; band course between ground and 1st floor. Columnar mullions to ground floor windows; chamfered reveals to 1st floor windows; bull-faced long and short quoins with droved strips to angles. Tower: string courses dividing stages; machiolation course around 3rd stage.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 4-bay with slightly advanced gabled bay to centre and long side of single storey rectangular-plan entrance bay set back to right with tower behind. Projecting 7 light bay at ground to centre; single window at 1st floor above. Window with raised, toothed lintel in bay to left; monogrammed shield above. Bipartite, round-arched window at ground in bay to outer left; dormer window with bracketed cill and decorative wrought-iron parapet at 1st floor above. 5-light round-arched bay to right of centre; 3 blind slits, evenly disposed, at 2nd stage of tower behind; 3, evenly disposed, small square windows to all faces of tower at 3rd stage above.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: irregular 4-bay. Lampstandards flanking steps to entrance porch in bay to left: tapered square-plan with ball supporting lamp shaft above, cast-iron lamp stands on sandstone plinths; embossed fleur-de-lys and anthemion motifs with ram?s heads at angles; opaque glass (possibly replacement) globes above; keystoned lintel over architraved doorway; 3-leaf timber panelled door with boss details. Small bipartite round-arched window below round-arched stair window at 1st stage of tower to right. 3-light round-arched window at ground in advanced gabled bay to right; window at 1st floor above. Replacement timber door at ground to flat-roofed, single storey bay to outer right.

S (SIDE) ELEVATION: irregular 3-bay with gable to right. Modern, glazed rectangular-plan entrance porch with modern steel balcony at ground in gabled bay to right; round-arched window, set to right, at 1st floor above. Narrow window with small window flanking at ground in bay to centre; 2 windows, set close, at 1st floor above. Replacement door at ground in bay to left.

W (REAR) ELEVATION: irregular 4-bay with gable to centre, bipartite and tripartite windows at ground and lean-to brick addition to outer left.

Variety of glazing patterns including 2- and 4-pane timber sash and case windows; fixed windows to tower (stained glass border to stair window); modern plate glass to S porch. Grey slate and decorative cast-iron ridge to shallow pitched and piended roof; slate to shallow pyramidal roof with flag-pole to tower; modern roofing material to lean-to addition; multi-flue ashlar coped stacks with panelled and dentilled cans; cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: not seen, 1997.

Statement of Interest

Originally a single large villa, now divided, sited on the lower reaches of the Clyde valley and giving views towards Strathclyde Country Park (now somewhat interrupted by the M74). A good example of the early Thomson style, emphasised by the inclusion of an Italianate tower (as at Greenbank, in the nearby village of Bothwell; see separate list description) as, from around 1856-7 he was to exclude such towers from his repertoire. Typically, the external appearance reflects the internal layout with the semicircular bay to the centre of the principal elevation indicating a major room. Advanced and recessed planes, some gabled and all with bold overhanging eaves, are a typical Thomson feature and his attention to detail is illustrated by the repetition on the doors of the small bosses found around the cornice of the semicircular bay. In plan and elevation Craigievar/Gleneden is strikingly similar to Craig Ailey, Kilcreggan, Dunbartonshire of 1850. The latter also sports a central semicircular bay, a low, rectangular-plan porch in front of a machicolated-detailed tower and predominantly round-arched windows.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17567952

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.

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