Scottish Baronial architecture

Scottish Baronial architecture (sometimes Baronial style) is a style of architecture with its origins in the sixteenth century. "Castle-like", the style draws on the features of Medieval castles, tower houses and the French Renaissance châteaux. Pioneered by figures including Sir Walter Scott, in the nineteenth century it was revived as part of the Gothic Revival and remained popular until World War I, with extensive use in Scotland and examples in Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.

Buildings of the style frequently feature towers adorned by small turrets called bartizans. Roof lines are uneven, their crenelated battlements often broken by stepped gables. While small lancet windows may appear in towers and gables, large bay windows of plate glass were not uncommon, but even these often had their individual roofs adorned by pinnacles and crenelation. Porches, porticos and porte-cocheres, were often given the castle treatment. An imitation portcullis on the larger houses would occasionally be suspended above a front door, flanked by heraldic beasts and other medieval architectural motifs.

This architectural style was often employed for public buildings, such as Aberdeen Grammar School. However, it was by no means confined to Scotland and is a fusion of the Gothic revival castle architecture first employed by Horace Walpole for his Twickenham villa, Strawberry Hill, and the ancient Scottish defensive tower houses. In the 19th century it became fashionable for private houses to be built with small turrets and dubbed in Scottish Baronial style. In fact the architecture often had little in common with tower houses, which retained their defensive functions and were deficient with respect to 19th-century ideas of comfort.

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