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Provan Hall: North Building

Date March 2016

Event ID 1008990

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Nts Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1008990

The site comprises two buildings, a north building and a south building, linked by a walled courtyard and with a formal partially walled garden to the west. Both the north and the south buildings are approximately 15m E-W by 6m N-S and consist of a ground, first floor and attic level. The north building, which is the older of the two also has a turret tower at the northeast corner. The first floor of the north building is accessed via an external stone stair at the north east corner of the courtyard, built against the south exterior wall of the north building. There may have been an additional or earlier stair against the west elevation of the north building but there is no evidence for this other than a blocked door aperture at first

floor level in the west gable of the north building. The attic level of the north building is access via a small hatch in the ceiling of the first floor level southwest cupboard. The first floor and attic level of the south building are accessed via an internal central stair.

The North Building

Exterior

The exterior elevations of the north building consist of the E and W gables, the N and S walls and the NE turret tower. All the rubble build masonry is visible.

Ground Floor

Total of four rooms; three vaulted rooms and the ground floor of the turret. The walls are whitewashed but the individual stones are visible. The ground floor has a flag floor throughout. The turret ceiling is the wooden floor of the first floor turret above. The timber joists of this floor are visible from the ground floor of the turret and they are hand sawn. There is one large fireplace in the west vault. Each vault has a south door leading to the courtyard; the doors are wooden, painted black, hung on pintles. There is an internal door aperture between the central and the east vault with no door, and an internal door aperture between the east vault and the turret also with no door. There are two south windows in the west vault,

one north window in the central vault, one north window in the east vault and two windows/gun loops in the turret. There are two aumbry features inside the large fireplace in the west vault, the south one has painted wooden shutters. There are two aumbry features in the south wall of the central vault built into the south wall on either side of the door aperture. There is an aperture feature in the west wall of the central vault extending through the vaulted ceiling up to the first floor level, it is blocked at the top with long stones.

First Floor

Total of three rooms and one cupboard; west room, east room, west cupboard and the first floor of the turret. The walls are plastered and painted obscuring the stone except for the margins of fireplaces and

door apertures and the north wall of the east room which has been partially stripped. The cupboard, west room and east room have a flag floor and the turret has a wooden plank floor. There is one fireplace in the

east room and one in the west room. The east room has one door leading to the courtyard via stone steps. The door is wooden painted black and hung on pintles. There is a blocked door in the west gable of the west room. There is an internal door between the west room and the cupboard with a warped wooden door similar to external doors but not painted, and internal door between the west room and the east room with a wooden door similar to the external door but not painted and an internal door aperture between the east room and the turret with no door. There is one window in the south wall of the cupboard, two windows is the west room (one in the south wall, one in the north), three windows in the east room

(one in the south wall, one in the north, one in the east) and there are four windows in the turret. Ashlar posts are visible in the north wall where the plaster has been stripped back. There is a decorative plaster cornice in the east and the west room.

Attic Level

Total of three rooms, east attic, west attic, and turret attic. Access is via a hatch in the ceiling of the cupboard of the first floor (no bigger that 0.5m square). There may be no access to the turret attic. The rubble build masonry is visible however as access was not possible during the site visit only the central wall between the east and west rooms was visible. There is no floor. The ceiling is sarking boards. Estimated ten trusses in each the east and the west attic comprising N and S rafters, upper and lower collar, and ashlar posts seen in the north wall of the east room below. There is one internal door aperture between the east and west attic, no door visible. The caretaker believes that there are some original

timbers but that much repair work and replacement was carried out in 1936 and then again in the 1970's.

Information from NTS (SCS) March 2016

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