A pretty grey-harled Art-and-Crafts mansion with Neo Georgian overtones set in a natural bowl on the north side of Glen Brerachan, Perth and Kinross, Straloch House lies within a 1157-ha (2860-acre) estate, overlooking picturesque parkland with a spectacular wooded crag behind. Built in a U-plan, with French windows at the centre of the principal elevation, which takes best advantage of the view to southeast over Straloch Loch towards Strath Ardle.
The land was originally part of Faskally Estate, but sold by Archibald Butter in 1910. The new owner, an American industrialist of Scottish descent called George Clark, found the modest shooting lodge unsatisfactory and drew up plans for the grander property we now see. Straloch Old Lodge was retained as the Dower House. Construction began the following year, to the designs of Basil Gold Watney and Samuel Harrington Evans who worked under the influential London-based architect Edwin Lutyens (1869 - 1944). Sadly Evans was wounded at the Somme during the First World War and Watney was killed in an action on the River Danube in 1919.
The result is a fine mansion, comprising two storeys, an attic and a tall piended slate roof. It was B-listed in 2001. Inside most of the Lutyens details have been retained. Outside are ancillary buildings and an unusual D-shaped immense walled garden which were all part of the design. The Straloch Estate is in two parts; an upland section which supports red deer, red and black grouse and provides stalking and shooting, while the lowland is farmed with sheep and cattle.
