Arisaig House, Walled Garden

Arisaig House, Philip Webb, 1863-4; rebuilt on smaller scale by I. B. M. Hamilton & Orphoot, Whiting & Lindsay, 1937 Webb's first country house, built for Francis Dukinfield Palmer Astley, only the bones of which survived a devastating fire in 1935. Webb's references to the English parsonage style, beefed up in response to the rugged setting, remain only vaguely discernible in the somewhat indigestible rebuild. Closest to the original is the east-facing entrance court, where the gothic windows, clocktower and kitchen wing with massive battery of flues are largely Webb's work. The oak-finished interior of 1937 and later includes a cherrywoodpanelled dining room with Art Deco lighting and a staircase carved with leaves and gamebirds. Built of local granite rubble with dark whinstone dressings, the house rises from a wooded slope, steeply terraced on the south with a two-tiered walled kitchen garden.

Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

NM68SE 4.02 centred 69245 84879