The Tolbooth, B-Listed, is a two-storey building with a clocktower to the North, projecting on to Main Street. The building dates from the early 18th century but likely incorporated an earlier structure in the forming of what is visible today.
The works proposed focus on the repair and consolidation of the Tolbooth’s external fabric. At some point in the late 20th century the building was re-harled with cementitious render and pointing, which has cracked/failed in its maritime context, and informed the decay of the stonework. The works will remove this render and pointing, repair the stonework behind, forming a sound base for harling with a lime-based render, returning the building to a moisture-open breathable construction, and safeguarding the structure. The works are being carried out by Graeme Brown Ltd, a highly experienced stone and lime contractor with whom we have worked extensively in the past and are delighted to be doing so again. A scheme involving sympathetic internal alteration and upgrading works to adapt the building to residential use has also gained approval and will be carried out as a separate phase.
GRAS is leading a design team on behalf of the National Trust for Scotland, to develop an understanding of the Category A-listed Malleny House. Work is now underway to record the historic fabric, condition survey and inform planned fabric repairs to secure the future of the building. A team including AOC Archaeology have recently undertaken a LiDAR survey of the property both internally and externally from which a 3D model and high-resolution scaled orthographic images and elevational drawings will be produced.
The site has been Listed at Category A since 1971. The property is now surrounded by an area of housing, designated as Balerno Conservation Area. There are also the A-listed Doocot and C-listed Scott Burial Vault nearby. The earliest documentary evidence of Malleny estate is from around the 1280s. Malleny House was built around 1637 by the then owner Sir James Murray of Kilbaberton, Master of the King’s Works. Elements of an earlier house may have been incorporated into the fabric, which are thought to include the date stone of 1589, located in the kitchen of the present house . The Georgian Wing to the North was added around the 1820s. The date of the Southern range is assumed to be mid-19th Century. It is hoped the project will reveal more about this detail.
Moffat is a small town with a population of around 2,500 located in the district of Annandale in the Scottish Borders, around 21 miles north of Dumfries. The town developed primarily over the late 18th and early 19th centuries as a spa resort, having been largely redeveloped in the late 18th century during which a number of hotels and inns were constructed in the town centre to cater for the growing number of visitors.
Moffat Conservation Area includes the town centre and extends north eastward to encompass parkland extending down to the Annan Water and westward to cover an area of mainly 19th century residential development. GRAS were first appointed by the Community Council in late 2018 to prepare a Conservation Area Character Appraisal & Management Plan, which was then used to support an application to the Scottish Government for funding under the Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS) programme. This in turn resulted in a number of subsequent appointments, including development of proposals to refurbish and adapt the category B listed Archbald Moffat House, which dates from the late 18th century.
Inveravon Church, Ballindalloch, has four Class I Incised Pictish Symbol stones; dating from around the 6th Century AD. The stones depict representations of the ‘Pictish Beast,’ the most iconic of all the Pictish Symbols. Set into the south wall of the church, the stones were exposed to the problematic freeze-thaw cycle of the Highland site. The mounting of the stones was also causing damp ingress through the wall of the church. The stones were conserved and carefully removed from the wall. Now relocated in the stable environment of the North porch, they are complemented by the installation of interpretation panels.
