Dunblane, Perth Road, Dunblane Hydropathic Hotel, Gate Lodge

3-bay, asymmetrical, gabled lodge. N facing. Yellow ashlar sandstone, overhanging eaves with exposed rafters. 2-storey, bay to left with advanced canted bay to ground floor with corbelled roof, window above. Single storey, 2 bays to right; single window to left; open, gabled timber porch to right, recessed entrance. Advanced canted window to Perth Road gable end, blind to E end, rear not seen 2001, interior not seen 2001.

Through their vast architectural output Peddie and Kinnear held pre-eminence throughout the late 19th century as Scotland's foremost practice. Working in various style from Scots Baronial to classicism and Italianate, as at the Hydro. The design of the Hydro is reminiscent of the great 19th century hotels of the Venetian Lido. Despite its scale the Hydro retains a remarkable cohesion to its Palladian, hierarchical formula. The origins of the Hydropathic Hotel lie with Dr Peter Gordon Stewart, a surgeon in Dunblane, who in 1839 published a treatise on the properties of the town's mineral springs, "which like the Philosopher's Stone had been represented as capable of curing all diseases and even of wooing the mind to sanity when the wild delirium comes and weeping friends are strangers." The Dunblane Hyrdopathic Company, founders of the hotel, rented the mineral wells and for some years water was brought up to the hotel for the guests. The hotel opened in September 1878 based up a joint stock company made up of wealthy traders and business men principally from Dunblane, Stirling and Edinburgh. However, the venture was not a success and the hotel went into receivership in 1884 and was bought by the Cockburn Hotel, Edinburgh for 16,000 (original cost of 60,000). The hotel has continued in business ever since and is today within the Hilton hotel group. (Historic Scotland)