Description

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

This boathouse formerly served Dunselma, immediately to the N. Dunselma and associated buildings were built for James Coats Junior to the designs of architects Rennison and Scott in 1885-6. The boathouse is a part of a complex of buildings that are the ultimate expression of the conspicuous wealth of late 19th century industrialists. The boathouse is also important as James Coats is perhaps best known for his yachting exploits and this is a survival of the heyday of yachting on the Clyde. The building also displays good quality nautical-themed stonework, corresponding to that on the main house.

The boathouse is a simple rectangular building with a crow-stepped gables to the front containing a segmental-arched opening. The gable-front is carved with a series of stepped band-courses, ball-finialled skewputts and a rope-moulded roundel. The side elevations are harled, with sandstone finials and parapets. The original building appears to have consisted of a single space open to a timber-truss roof. The building has since been converted to form a home. This has resulted in flat-roofed extensions to the rear, the NE side and the front.

Materials: Sandstone ashlar to front and dressings. Harled stone to sides and rear. Slate roof with stone ridge. PVC windows.

Boundary Wall, Gates And Gatepiers: low stone boundary wall with chamfered copes. Square-plan gatepiers with ball finials. Elaborate cast iron gate. The stone and concrete jetty still survives on the sea-front.

Statement of Interest

James Coats Junior (1841-1912) was the grandson of Sir James Coats, the Paisley cotton millionaire. He was the president of the Royal Clyde Yacht Club and is known to have owned 16 yachts. Coats' main house was Ferguslie in Paisley (demolished).

The house later belonged to Walter Bergius (another keen sailor), of the Bergius Engine company, later the Kelvin company.

Little work by architects Rennison and Scott is known. It appears they worked mostly for the Coats family. J.A Rennison designed Carskiey House (1904-9) in a Scottish Vernacular idiom on the Mull of Kintyre for Kate Coats (Walker, 2000, 62). The only other known house by the practice is Cartside House, Renfrew, of 1880.

The complex at Dunselma included the main house with lawns to the front incorporating a tennis court, the stables and staff accommodation on the High Road and the Lodge, Boathouse and a large palm house (since demolished) on the shore.

B-Group with Dunselma, Dunselma stables and Dunselma Lodge.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata IDs Q77778847 Q77778851

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)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair