Craigrownie Castle, South Ailey Road, Cove, Lomond North, Argyll and Bute

Description

Alexander Thomson, c.1854 with later additions and alterations (see Notes). 2- to 6-storey, asymmetrical Baronial castle with 3-stage tower and large oriel windows, situated on high ground falling sharply to W. Whinstone and sandstone rubble with harl-pointing; ashlar margins and dressings. Base course; string course; eaves band; raised cills, stone mullions and transoms.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: L-plan of 3 bays with tower and canted porch at re-entrant angle. Square, 3-stage tower with bipartite window at 2nd stage; narrow round-headed lights at upper level; moulded string courses dividing stages; crenellated parapet on corbelled course. Tudor-arched door to porch flanked by diagonal buttresses and blind niches, parapet raised as plaque at centre. Advanced shouldered jamb to left of porch with transomed and mullioned window at upper stage, 2 small lights at gablehead. Crenellated block advanced in front of jamb with canted red sandstone window. To right of porch: narrow bay with transomed and mullioned window with hoodmould at ground; gabled dormerhead above. Broad, parapetted gable to right having slender full-height canted window to centre. Segmental-arched pedestrian gate within wall to outer right.

W ELEVATION: 3-bay block of gabled bays with tower to outer left, return of jamb to outer right. Tall gabled block slightly advanced to outer right, whinstone with red sandstone details. Canted, parapetted oriel at principal floor, door with flanking diagonal buttresses at ground, tripartite window at 2nd floor. Narrow, gabled bay recessed to left, battered base at ground, bipartite window at 1st floor, tripartite window at 2nd floor. 4-stage with attic tower to outer left, ashlar forestair against basement; Tudor-arched door on right return flanked by buttresses. 3 narrow windows above base, tripartite window at 3rd stage, slender oriel above; parapet interrupting deeply-moulded bracketted course of attic; shallow attic with stepped parapet, window at centre.

N ELEVATION: rambling-plan of 3-bay main block with jamb advanced to outer left and service block recessed to outer left. Tower bay to outer right, narrow door and window at basement; tripartite window above; quadripartite window at principal floor on deeply-moulded corbelling, transomed and mullioned window at upper floor, flanked by small blind bipartite openings. Lower 2-bay block to left with windows symmetrically disposed, dormerheaded windows at attic stage. 2-bay, sandstone jamb advanced to left, crenellated parapet, windows asymmetrically disposed.

Predominently plate glass timber sash and case windows; 4-pane over 6-pane lying pane glazing on entrance elevation. Grey slate roof.

STABLE MEWS AND COACH HOUSE (FORMER SERVICE COURT): abuts single-storey outshot at N (rear) wall of castle. Roughly U-plan, former service wing; comprising 2 gable-end blocks linked by single-storey range to E. Both gabled blocks having roughly hewn sandstone skews and shouldered stacks with large octagonal cans at apex. Harled with exposed sandstone margins and dressings. Pedimented loft door (now internally blocked) to N elevation of Stable Mews; remains of pulley over door. All interiors remodelled for residential use, now forming two individual dwelling houses. Timber framed windows; some timber sash and case. Grey slate. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

BOUNDARY WALL: elaborate boundary wall along Rosneath and South Ailey Roads. Whinstone wall with rusticated coping and dressing, broad dies with low plinth wall, quadripartite piercing between dies of bull-faced rusticated masonry and cruciform ironwork.

GATEPIERS AND PEDESTRIAN GATES: gatepiers along Rosneath Road. Tall, bull-faced rusticated piers with blind arch at centre, square caps with moulded coping; 3-centred pedestrian arch-way to left. Tall, sqaure termination pier at corner of Rosneath Road and South Ailey Road, rusticated, battered base, blind arrowslit at centre, moulded neck, square graded cap. Tudor-arched pedestrian gate to left, stepped coping above with plaque at centre. Single gatepier on South Ailey Road; rusticated, square graded cap.

Statement of Interest

Craigrownie Castle is a large, imposing and well-detailed Baronial country house with Tudorbethan details, situated on high ground to the south west shore of the Rosneath peninsular.

Built as Craigrownie House, it is understood to have been designed by the Glasgow architect Alexander 'Greek' Thomson (b.1817) in the early 1850s. Thomson was later to become one of the foremost architects of his generation, renowned for his Greek Revival churches, villas and terraces in Glasgow from the mid 1850s onwards. Craigrownie is his single major work in the Baronial style, adding to its rarity and interest.

Built as a weekend and holiday retreat for wealthy Glasgow ironfounder and railway contractor John McElroy, Craigrownie was sold in 1858 to Alexander Abercrombie who added the substantial NE wing in 1890. The building was converted for use as the Stewart Home for the Mentally Handicapped in 1958 before being rennovated as a family home and country guest house circa 2000.

The villages of Cove and Kilcreggan were created by the 8th Duke of Argyll in 1849 when he feued the strip of land along the south west shore of the Rosneath Peninsula. Plots were taken up by Glasgow businessmen who built the large villas and castles which characterise the area, as summer residences.

List description updated, 2012. Previously listed as "South Ailey Road, Craigrownie Castle (Former Stewart Home) With Boundary Wall, Gatepiers And Pedestrian Gates".

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