Glenarbuck House, Old Kilpatrick, West Dunbartonshire

Description

Early 19th century. 2-storey and attic, 3-bay, rectangular-plan Neo-classical mansion house; large, 2-storey service and accommodation block to rear (divided into 2 dwellings between front and rear). Diagonally droved, painted ashlar; rendered to sides and rear; raised ashlar dressings; raised margins; droved basecourse; corniced eaves course. Pedimented, tripartite windows to principal elevation. Prominent 2-storey bowed end bays with large tripartite bay windows to ground and 1st floors; classical architraves at ground level. Plain raised margins to side and rear openings.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Central Roman Doric portico; plain, unfluted columns on low, square stone plinths; corniced abacus to head. Doric entablature of rounded guttae below moulded triglyphs; plain rectangular modillions to underside of projecting, banded cornice. Wooden, 4-panel double storm doors with 10-pane fanlight above. Tripartite, pedimented windows flanking portico; 4 large, plain dentils to base of pediment; stone mullions with moulded acanthus and horizontally fluted details; projecting, shouldered cill with raised, banded border and vertical fluted detailing. 2-storey bowed bays to either side. 3 windows to 1st floor; 2 segmentally arched, lead-roofed, 2-light rectangular dormers to attic.

W ELEVATION: 8 bays (arranged 3-5, between main house and service block). Bowed, 2-storey bay to far right; tripartite windows to ground and 1st floor (blind left-hand window at 1st floor). 2 later 20th century doorways to left of bowed bays (right-hand doorway originally a window); 1st floor window above right-hand doorway with piended boxed dormer to attic. Windows to ground and 1st floor of 3 service block bays to right; window to penultimate bay to left at ground floor (originally doorway). Single openings to far left bay, at upper ground floor and 1st floor.

N ELEVATION: 5 bays. Central doorway; 2 small windows to right, window to far left at ground floor. 1st floor window to penultimate bay left, small window to right.

E ELEVATION: 8 bays (arranged 2-6, main houseto left and service block to right). Bowed 2-storey bay to far left; tripartite window to 1st floor (3rd light now blocked). Long, tripartite stair window to right bay of main house at 1st floor; ground floor window, off-centre right with small light to left. Irregular fenestration to service block; doorway to penultimate bay to right.

INTERIOR: access not obtained, 2004.

12-pane, timber sash and case windows (some 4-light and 16-light); lattice paned stair windows. Piended and conical roofs to main house; U-shaped, double ridge roof to service block; semi-conical roofs to bowed side bays; piended to main house. 2 corniced ashlar ridge stacks to main house; 2 to W service block; 1 to right service block. New circular clay cans. Timber panelled door; 10-light, chequered timber fan light.

SUNDIAL: located on lawn to S of main house. Plain stone baluster column on round moulded base; Doric capital supporting square platform; copper, arabesque moulded dial.

Statement of Interest

Glenarbuck House is a finely detailed and prominently positioned mansion house, overlooking the North Clyde Estuary. The house and lands were designed and built for Gilbert Hamilton, provost of Glasgow in 1792. He aquired the Glenarbuck estate in the late 18th century, and built this mansion house soon after. The house is in a popular neo-classical design, with similar examples of the porticoed entrance with bowed projections being found at Ibroxhill in Govan (the site of which is now occupied by the House for an Art Lover in Bellahouston Park) and Househill in Paisley. During World War II, a small military camp of Nissan huts is known to have occupied the land to the north of Glenarbuck House, between the main house and the Great Western Road. The estate of Glenarbuck was originally larger, stretching further south to meet Dumbarton Road in Bowling, with two entrance points at the E and W corners of the estate. A lodge sat at the E entrance, with what may have been 2 cottages sitting at the W entrance. A walled garden also sat to the SW of the house, next to the stables (see separate listing). Of this only the stables and the N part of the walled garden have survived, the rest being removed to make way for the Great Western Road. A replacement lodge was built at the new E entrance which is now a private dwelling with no access to the main house, and a later gateway built to the W. The estate is now separated from the busy Great Western Road by a dense bank of trees and bushes.

Glenarbuck House lies within the amenity zone for the Antonine Wall recommended in D N Skinner The Countryside of the Antonine Wall (1973), and which will form the basis of the buffer zone, yet to be defined, for the proposed Antonine Wall World Heritage Site.

External Links

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.