Description

Established 1794. Extensive range of distillery buildings including office building to E end of Stafford Street with warehouses to S and E and courtyard to N E corner of site.

Offices: probably George Woulfe Brenan, 1894. 3-bay, 3-storey near-symmetrical office building with residential accommodation at 3rd floor. Bull-faced, squared and snecked grey granite principal (W) front with yellow polished sandstone ashlar dressings. Coursed rubble side elevations, painted brick to rear with stugged ashlar dressings. Quoins to window surrounds, matching those at corners framing elevation. String course at 1st floor, cornice and blocking course with terminal urns. Chamfered arrises to windows. Ground floor, entrance door to centre bay with vaulted pend at bay to right. Tripartite windows at 1st floor, corbelled oriel to centre bay with large fluted bracket below. Bipartite windows at 2nd floor.

Timber sash and case windows with 4-pane upper sashes, plate glass lower sashes except for 4-pane window to ground floor. Plate glass timber to rear elevation except for modern glazing to 2nd floor . Modern entrance door, 2-leaf vertically-boarded timber doors to pend openings. Vertically-boarded sliding doors within pend. Grey slate piended roof, gablets to end elevations with apex stacks, decorative square cans with panels and dentils.

Old Malt Barns 1 and 2, and Old Malt Kiln Area: double-pile range of early 19th century 4-storey buildings to W extent of site, with 11-bay N elevation bordering Stafford Street. Bull-faced, squared and snecked grey granite to Stafford Street, rubble walls with stugged dressings elsewhere, black-painted quoins to openings. S elevation of Barn 2 slightly advanced. Grey slate piended roof to Barns 1 and 2. Old Malt Kiln Area, lean-to along S wall of Barn 2, modern monopitch roof with random rubble W wall. Vertically-boarded timber shutters with 2-pane windows above to W and N elevations. Diagonally-boarded timber doors to Stafford street elevation. Timber floor construction over cast-iron columns and beams.

Disused Warehouse 3: 3-storey building, with 4 widely spaced bays, connected to rear (E) of office building. Random rubble walls, slit windows except for windows with iron bars at 1st bay and ground floor to left of bay 4. Vertically-boarded, 2-leaf timber doors with external metal hinges. Piended roof with modern corrugated cladding, cast-iron gutters and downpipes. Cast-iron columns supporting timber beams and floors.

Duty Free Warehouse 4: double pile warehouse to SE corner of site with corrugated-iron infill over pend to W. Rubble W wall, infilled window openings except for 3 with cast-iron bars, projecting cills. Blank S elevation with corrugated-iron infill section left. Sliding vertically-boarded timber doors to pend at street level. Corrugated cladding to pitched roofs.

Duty Free Warehouse 5: 2-bay, 4-storey elevation exposed to W, grey granite rubble walls with sandstone ashlar lintels and projecting cills, iron bars to windows. Slit window centring gablehead, buttressed N wall. Vertically-boarded timber doors with cast-iron hinges. Pitched roof with modern corrugated cladding, cast-iron gutters and downpipes with large hoppers. Adjacent remaining W wall of former adjoining building, N wall now demolished. Infilled openings with stugged sandstone dressings in W wall. Modern lean-to garage building now on site, rendered walls and slated monopitch roof. Vertically-boarded timber 2-leaf doors with external hinges.

Mash House: open timber roof with slated, piend-roofed ventilator at ridge..

Tun Room: metal trussed roof construction.

Boiler House: brick addition to E of Still House, curved NE corner, also containing oil and soda stores.

Still House: steel truss roof construction, re-covered recently (1993). Vertically-boarded timber sliding door to courtyard at rear. Mill Room to W end with open timber, piended, roof. Brick addition to E, with curved corner, containing boiler house and oil and soda tanks. Adjacent red brick chimney to E, painted red and black with metal bands around.

Disused Store 2: 2-bay, E end gable elevation visible with loading doors at 1st bay of each floor. Doorway at ground floor, bay 2. Vertically-boarded timber doors, 2-leaf with external hinges at ground floor.

Filling Store: 2-bay, 4-storey rendered E elevation. Projecting cills and iron bars to windows, slit window in gablehead. Doorway at ground floor, bay 1, with window to left. Vertically-boarded, 2-leaf timber doors. Timber joists and floorboards over cast-iron columns and beams. Grey slate roof.

Disused Warehouse 6: 4-storey over basement, double-pile warehouse in S W corner of site, adjacent to filling store. Coursed rubble walls, Single bay section of N elevation visible at E end, with slit windows and doorway at ground floor. E wall obscured above ground floor by warehouse no. 4 infill. 5-storey S elevation of 3 widely spaced bays. Slit window at basement level, iron bars and projecting cills to windows above.

Statement of Interest

As well as being one of Oban's most prominent landmarks, the distillery is very significant for its association with the Stevenson family who were responsible for transforming the town from a small fishing village to a prosperous trading and manufacturing community. Archives With a number of other partners, John and Hugh Stevenson founded the Oban Brewery Company in 1793 and by 1799 had established a distilling business on the same site. Association with the Stevenson family remained until around 1861 when the firm of A & R Walker took over, but in 1866 it was then sold to a local merchant, Peter Cumstie. Plans at the Dean of Guild Court record work by Alexander Shairp in 1890 for a bonded warehouse. George Woulfe Brenan was the architect responsible for warehouses and alterations from 1894, except for work to the Kiln in 1898 and 1926 by Charles C Doig. The loss of the kiln roof is unfortunate, as the composition of the buildings when viewed from George Street has been altered. Despite being largely redundant, the remaining buildings have been maintained in good order by the present company despite the fact that they no longer have a use for some of them.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17773992

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.

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