Building record MHG16076 - Duncraig Castle, Laundry, Stables & Walled Garden

Alexander Ross, 1866. Scottish Baronial. Large 3-storey, 9-bay asymmetrical mansion, gabled and crenellated. Coursed rubble, tooled dressings. 2 square crenellated towers rise 1 stage above roof. Porte cochere to south front entrance; large crenellated canted bay window to north. 2-pane glazing; corniced end and ridge stacks; slate roof. Single storey service court to west flanked by single storey 3-bay chapel and 2 stage octagonal water tower. Large modern addition to east. Interior: original chimneypieces and doorpieces, enriched ceilings.

Laundry: 2-storey, 3-bay gabled porch and outer stair; rubble, tooled dressings; 3 bipartites, ground and 1st floors, north elevation; slate roof with small ridge cupola. Stables: symmetrical 2-storey, 5-bay court; outer and central segmental headed arched entrance bay gabled; bipartites in outer bays at ground floor; 2-pane glazing; 2 small modern dormers; end and ridge stacks; slate roof. Large walled garden to rear. <1>

Duncraig Castle, Alexander Ross, 1866 Overgrown Scots Jacobean villa with various crenellated towers, superbly sited to command views of the Cuillin and Applecross mountains, and most effective when seen from Plockton, across the bay. Built for Sir Alexander Matheson, it was bequeathed to Ross & Cromarty County Council in 1945 and became a home economics training college. Extended with a discordant Modernist wing in 1969. Closed in 1989, the house suffered more than a decade of neglect before new owners set about its rescue in 2003. Hidden among the policies, various contemporary ancillary buildings include: laundry with louvred cupola, court of offices inscribed 'Fear God, work hard, be honest', boat house, large walled garden and private station stop, with frilly-eaved octagonal hut. <2>

This building was on the Buildings At Risk register, maintained by The Scottish Civic Trust, between 1987 and 2010. The catering college closed in 1989, and subsequently the building was only used peripatetically trhoughout the 1990s. As of September 2010, the house had been restored and was in use as guest accommodation. <3>

This site has been photographed from the air by Jim Bone. <4>

A photographic survey, comprising both internal and external views, of the redundant school building was carried out in 2011 as a condition of a planning application for external re-instatement works to the castle after demolition of the former school building (Listed Building Consent) - See also 11-04001-FUL. <5>