Description

Style of Bryce, circa 1838 with additions and remodelling in late 19th century and modern additions on convertion to hotel. 2-storey, asymmetrical gabled house with Tudor-Jacobean details, rambling-plan. Coursed, stugged, honey-coloured sandstone with ashlar margins. Chamfered arrises. Base course. Recessed plaques in gableheads. Gabled dormerheads.

S ELEVATION: 4-bay main block with lower recessed service block to left and elaborate entrance porch in re-entrant angle. Near-symmetrical main block; slightly-advanced, gabled outer bays, that to right broader. Square bay windows at ground right and left, bipartite with ashlar half-piend roof to left, tripartite with blocking cousre to right, string course on either side of bay windows. Windows symmetrically disposed in 2 centre bays; dormerhead windows at 1st floor. Sandstone ashlar, loggia-type Renaissance porch on W return. Pedestal base; corner piers with circled and panelled shafts and 2 centre Corinthian columns support entablature and open arched balustrade with ball finials. Armorial escutcheon on S face with console pediment, below in frieze is monogram supported on anthemion. Rendered and lined, 2-bay flat-roofed infill to left of porch on W side. 3-bay service wing recessed to left; advanced gable to outer left, bipartite window at upper floor, ground floor masked by modern conservatory addition. 2-bays to left with dormerhead windows at 1st floor. Single storey modern addition to outer left.

E ELEVATION: 4-bay main block with recessed 3-bay block to right, modern arcaded conservatory adjoining to right linked to modern additions at rear, further linking with modern rendered, 2-storey, 7-bay range in sympathetic style. Main block; broad gable to outer right with full height square bay, tripartite windows. Broad canted bay occupies ground to left, centre tripartite window with single side windows, blocking course. Symmetrical bays at 1st floor, centre French door with flanking narrow windows all with dormerheads. Modern spiral fire escape by re-entrant right angle with plain balustrade above bay. 2 symmetrical bays on N return; dormerheads. 3-bay recessed block to right; broad outer right gable with canted honey-coloured sandstone bay at ground, blocking course, bipartite at 1st floor. 2 symmetrical bays to left, dormerheads. 12-bay arcaded conservatory on continuing base course, fish-scale tiled keel roof, forestair entrance on N return.

8-pane sash and case windows at ground, 4-pane sash and case windows in side windows of bay, 12-pane sash and case for 1st floor. Plate glass sash and case windows on outer left bay of S elevation and on ground floor of recessed E block, 4-pane sash and case at 1st floor. Grey-green slate roof, tall, corniced ashlar ridge and gablehead stacks. Gablet coped skews with kneelers and skewputts. Good gutterheads surviving.

INTERIOR: elaborate late 19th century interior of ecclectic Jacobean and classical styles. Entrance hall entered through liver-coloured marble columns, finished in oak, arcaded gallery on half-landing carried on fluted oak columns with Corinthian capitals, delicate Adamesque plasterwork. Elaborate oak doorcases with heavy panelled doors and open pediments, chimneypiece in similar style in stair hall. Dining room has oak cimneypiece with brass lions and William de Morgan tiles. Drawing room has compartmented ceiling with delicate moulding.

Statement of Interest

The house is described as "finished" in the NSA Ratho Parish entry, dated 1839. Additions were made circa 1890 for the Usher brewing family, and the house is now a hotel (1991). Norton House West and North lodges, walled garden, stables and railway bridge are listed separately.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17808888

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

• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas