Description

Dated 1872. Tall single storey and attic, 5-bay, H-plan stable range with hayloft, decoratively-finialled timber clock belfry, stone dormer gablets, Tudor- and pointed-arch openings, cart arches, stone-finialled gables. Stugged coursed and squared granite with patchy harl to sides and rear, ashlar margins and quoin strips. Deep base course, band course appearing as continuous hoodmould to SE gables. Doors of vertically-boarded timber.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Set-back centre bays incorporating door at centre with windows in flanking bays and further doors beyond at re-entrant angles, 2 small dormer windows breaking roofline at centre, and square-plan clock belfry with decorative cast-iron weathervane rising at centre of roof ridge. Advanced outer gables each with 2 Tudor-arched windows at ground and pointed-arch window in gablehead incorporating dated tympanum, each return with door in re-entrant angle, that to left also with small round-arched niche-type water trough at ground. Courtyard area with cobbled setts. Doors with deep boarded fanlights.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: variety of elements to rear elevation, including Tudor-arched window to left and hayloft opening in gablehead of right gable, broader further advanced gable at left with square-headed openings, and recessed centre bays under catslide roof with 2 diminutive piended roof ventilators.

NE ELEVATION: 2 cart arches flanking water trough as above.

Most windows timber-boarded, that to left gable at SW with 8-pane glazing pattern to 2-part timber casement window and 4-pane glazing pattern to dormers; window to NW gablehead at left with 12-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case window. Grey slates. Coped ashlar ridge stacks with stacks, some polygonal. Ashlar-coped skews with moulded skewputts. Small traditional rooflights except 2 replacements at NW.

INTERIOR: timber-lined tackroom with timber fireplace. See Notes.

Statement of Interest

Situated close to Newmachar, Straloch (formerly Strathloch) was granted by charter to Henry Cheyne in 1348. Straloch House of 1780 is a category 'A' listed building, with a number of other estate buildings also listed. This finely-detailed stable range, an essential element of estate life situated close to Straloch House, displays its importance in both design and material. The Third Statistical Account reports that the estate was owned by Francis Charles Quentin Irvine, a descendant of the Ramsays of Barra. It continues 'The estate, with its spacious lands, park, woodlands and farms, remains unaltered'. The quality evident in the stables exterior was, until recently, complemented by elegant loose boxes of cast-iron and timber. A small L-plan granite sawmill is sited close to the stables, another reminder of the self-sufficiency of a working estate.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17776494

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)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover