The Gate Lodges: Tim's Plans

Having recently purchased the gate lodges of Balintore Castle, thoughts naturally go to how these structures could be brought back into use. So when my friend Tim asked me if he could measure up the buildings and draw up plans as a project for his course on historic building design, I was delighted. Tim is the presiding genius behind "The Big House Instagrammed" which is a Facebook page featuring country houses around the UK, with an emphasis on the ruined and the Welsh.

Tim's project brief was to design a modern element as part of a suggested reuse of a historic structure, and in the three plans below he has succeeded spectacularly. He even got an A for the project! The proposal includes a small glass extension to the east lodge. Due to the size of the lodges Tim did not want to make the extension too big. Ironically, neither of us is a huge fan of the current vogue for adding glass extensions to historic buildings. 

Tim has used both lodges, splitting them up into "day living" and "night living".  Both lodges have a toilet ;-) to avoid any midnight trips across the drive to the other lodge. Little did Tim know that this echos the historic use of the buildings, with a bedroom in the west lodge and east lodge containing the remainder of the domestic accommodation. I recently found this out in a phone conversation with David Storrier who I mention in a previous blog entry.

Click on the images for an enlarged view, and click on the image captions to access the original PDF files.

Balintore gate lodges - proposed external plans 

Balintore gate lodges - proposed floor plan

Balintore gate lodges - proposed furniture layout

Tim's plans really work well as a ground level solution. He has obviously thought about the layout very carefully, and the kitchen is a triumph of resourcefulness with units against the existing wall and glass elsewhere. This would definitely appeal to the tourist market, if the gate lodges became holiday lets. Plenty of food for thought in these plans. The gate lodges are surprisingly tall, and there is additional scope for a mezzanine level or an upper floor to relieve the accommodation pressure which forces split-lodge living.

Thank you Tim!