Auchmar

Auchmar is a cream-pink harled house under a sweeping slate roof with bell-cast piends and steep gables, designed by Stewart and Paterson in 1932 for the Duke of Montrose. It provided a new modern family seat as an alternative to Buchanan Castle which had been sold in 1925. The house incorporates the buildings of a late 18th/early 19th century farmhouse and steading. It sits on secluded site positioned to enjoy spectacular views over Loch Lomond; to the immediate southeast of the house, the site slopes steeply down to the Burn of Mar.

The late 18th/early 19th century farmhouse and steading of Auchmar, as shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1872, consisted of a two-storey, three-bay rectangular plan southeast facing house with a single storey U-plan steading to the rear, a typical layout for Buchanan Estate farms of this period.

The 1932 scheme linked the steading range to the original house, forming a service courtyard. To the southwest, a large two-storey and attic range provides the principal accommodation. The reception rooms on the ground floor and the principal bedrooms above enjoy the fine views to the south and west over the gardens towards Loch Lomond. The north entrance front has a projecting gable with a sandstone Doric portico presumably relocated from another house. The garden or west front has a deeply projecting piend-roofed bay with a square bay window, a gable to centre with an offset square bay window lighting the entrance hall, and a two-storey square bay window to the right, which lights the drawing room. The colour combination of the dark green painted woodwork and the cream washed harl appears original and adds to the charm of this Scots Arts and Crafts house.

Information from RCAHMS (STG), 2009