Orchardbank

Unusually-detailed, 2-storey, 5-bay, piend-roofed house in plantation style with Ionic doorpiece and colonial style verandah wings incorporating incised plinths added 1846, timpany gable to rear. Angus-type rubble and large quoins to N (rear elevation), harl with eaves course and quoin strips to S (principal elevation); stone cills.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: principal S elevation incorporates Ionic porch and deep-set door with decorative fanlight in bay to left of centre, further modern door to right of centre, and regular fenestration close to eaves at 1st floor. E and W elevations with 1st floor verandahs under piend roof, each with Doric columns on sandstone plinth, centre plinth inscribed '1846 ERECTED BY ALEX LINDSAY LATE OF EAST INDIES'. N elevation with large early stair window and timpany gable with blocked window.

Lying 20-pane glazing pattern to stair window and similar 16-pane pattern casement window to W elevation verandah (openings predominantly boarded up 2010). Largely small-pane glazing patterns elsewhere; all in timber sash and case windows unless stated. Out-of-character concrete pantiles and brick stacks. Some cast iron rainwater good with bearded head at SE angle of principal elevation.

Orchardbank is an unusual example of an early 19th century house remodelled into a plantation house with unusual colonial style additions, reflecting the architecture of the East Indies as recorded on the incised plinths which read '1846 ERECTED BY ALEX LINDSAY LATE OF EAST INDIES'. Other external architectural detail of some quality includes the fine Ionic-columned doorpiece together with the decorative fanlight.

Examples of colonial architecture in Scotland are rare, with the connection to Indo-Britain more often demonstrated in isolated detailing such as exotic carved stonework at the Pineapple, Dunmore (see separate listing). Orchardbank House is the only known house to interpret the grand plantation style. The Bungalow or Nabob style house appears rarely in estate architecture but is on a smaller scale.

Mapping evidence shows a large courtyard steading immediately south of the house which itself probably dated from the early 19th century but may be earlier. The raised site would have overlooked open countryside to the south with the Loch of Forfar at the rear just beyond the brow of the hill. Current access to the house is via a track at the west which appears from the early maps to be the original route. Over time the land to the east and south has been absorbed into an industrial estate but the site of the house and garden appears to be little altered.

The surviving interior detail evidences the early origins of Orchardbank, and is sufficient to indicate a building of some quality. The house is currently (2010) empty with the windows boarded over.

Lindsay is a common family name in the Forfar area. (Historic Environment Scotland List Entry)