Description

Early 19th century. 2-storey and attic over raised basement; 5-bay, classical house. Rectangular-plan with mid 19th century addition at rear and 1930s 2-storey garage addition to right. Ashlar fronted; ashlar margins; moulded architraves; whinstone to rear and sides with stugged sandstone margins. Eaves band and cornice. Band course between basement and ground floor. Rusticated quoins.

S (MAIN) ELEVATION: deep-set door at centre approached by oversailing arched ashlar stair; delicate ironwork railings. Corniced Roman Doric doorpiece; enriched sun-burst fanlight; raised 9-panelled door (modern) with Edinburgh handle; flanking windows. Windows symmetrically at 1st floor level. Segmental-headed dormers over penultimate bay to right and left. Droved ashlar at basement; 5 barred windows symmetrically disposed. Recessed to right is lower 1930s addition in complimentary style. 2-storey, 3-bay, chanelled ashlar at ground (garage and storage area); rendered upper floor. Eaves band. Door to ground outer left; 3 windows regularly placed at upper level. 3 garage doors at ground divided by channelled pillars on E return; 2 windows symmetrically placed at upper level.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: stair bay at centre; Y-traceried, fixed-pane round-arched window; keystone and impost blocks. Window to outer left and right at 1st floor, (blocked opening to left of outer right window). Mid 19th century, half-piend projecting bay to ground outer left (addition to dining room); large tripartite window at centre; stugged margin. Service wing abuts immediately to right; projects beyond line of left bay; half-piend roof with flat roofed extension to right. Rendered single storey service wing extends from house at outer right.

E ELEVATION: original house, largely blank; window to outer right at 1st floor; blocked window at centre now obscured by garage addition.

W ELEVATION: blank with rendered wall of service wing at ground.

12-pane sash and case windows; Y-tracery mullions for stair window, with 12-pane sash arrangement. Grey slate roof; tall corniced gablehead stacks.

INTERIOR: fine classical decoration. Vestibule with Gothic-glazed hall screen delicately trimmed with composition vines. Ornate bas-relief plasterwork ceilings. Gothick cornice. Stair hall with dado and winding cantilevered stair with slender cast-iron balusters and wooden handrail. Circular fan-centred ceiling with bas-relief plasterwork. Dining room to right from hall; gently curved N end with sideboard recess framed by fluted engaged Corinthian columns supporting festoon frieze. Palmette, moulded cornice. 6 doors with Classical figurative frieze. Pine chimneypiece; delicately carved. Plain drawing room at rear extended in 19th century.

WALLED GARDEN: SW of house. Squared and coursed whinstone with sandstone margins; flat sandstone coping. Approximately 60 x 50 metres. Terraced-type walled garden, S-facing slope towards Union Canal. Curved northern end with straight E and W walls. Door at either side of curved end; polished sandstone surround with contrasting sandstone and whinstone margins. Doors at southern end of E and W walls detailed similarly.

STABLES: WSW of house. Ground slopes from N to S. Single storey long, rectangular-plan stable range. Rubble whinstone with stugged sandstone quoins and margins. Segmental arch cart entrance to outer left, exposed voussoirs; 2-leaf wooden door, half-piend dormered hay-loft door above. Carriage door flanking to right (probably changed from arch) window immediately to right. Door to right and small window to outer right. Random cobbled area directly in front of stable block. Lean-to bay recessed to outer right.

INTERIOR: still used as stables,wooden loose boxes.

6-pane fixed glazing. Graded grey slate roof. Ashlar coping to skews; coped gablehead stacks. Setts to immediate forecourt.

Statement of Interest

Ratho Hall Garden House (dovecot) and former lodge (49 Baird Road) are listed separately. The design of the hall, David Walker revealed, follows a pattern illustrated in THE RUDIMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE published in several editions in the late 18th century. The house is an unusually complete and well-finished house of its date and includes stables.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17570617

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

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)