Description

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

Choille Bheag, a roughly rectangular-plan Italianate villa of c.1850 located in a prominent position above the Shore Road, is among the best of the villas along the Kilmun/Strone shore. The house is a good and intact example of the type and retains many original features as well as the stable and coach block to the rear.

The 1½-storey house consists of a principal south-facing elevation with a projecting shallow-pitch gable to the E. The entrance, in a separate gabled porch, is in the re-entrant to the E. To the rear is a parallel block, gabled to the E. Decorative details include corbelled eaves, a pierced balcony above the canted bay to the front gable and a variety of window surrounds, as well as raised quoins and a band course. To the rear of the house is a 2-storey stable/service block.

The main (S) elevation of Choille Bheag consists of a gable to the E, with a single-storey canted bay, with a pierced balcony to the pedimented window above. To the left (W) is a single-storey block. To the E, the gabled entrance porch has steps to the S with a pierced stone parapet. Behind this main block is a parallel 2-storey block, with an E-facing gable and a further N-facing gable. These elevations have a heavy channelled base course and wide margins and eaves course. The shallow-pitched gables have heavy stone corbels. The windows have either heavy corbelled overwindows or moulded surrounds.

Interior: the house retains a number of original interior features, such as the stone stair, with cast iron balusters and some good plaster cornices.

Materials: squared whin rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings. Timber sash and case windows. Predominantly plate glass lower sash and 6-pane lying-pane upper. Slate roof, stone skews, stone stacks and clay cans.

Outbuildings, Boundary Walls: to the rear of the house and across a narrow lane is a 2-storey service block, with external access to the upper floors at the gables.

The house is surrounded by a rubble boundary wall, with the entrance through a cast iron gate with square-plan gatepiers. Originally, the garden to the house extended further towards the sea but the road has since been straightened, reducing its size. The gate has also been moved from a position further W.

Statement of Interest

Although Kilmun is an early settlement, it remained a small village until the 1820s. From 1827 David Napier, a marine engineer, purchased land along the shore of Loch Long, built a pier, a hotel and several villas (Including the 'Tea Caddies' - also listed) at Kilmun and opened a new route from Glasgow to Inverary via Loch Eck, which led to the development of the area as a popular resort and a string of villas as far as Blairmore.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17776222

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)