Description

Circa 1825, rebuilt by Henry E Clifford 1896. 2-storey 3-bay classical house of rectangular plan, with 4-bay, 2-storey service wing projecting to NW. Polished ashlar principal front, harled side and rear elevations with raised polished ashlar margins to openings. Base course and cornice with blocking course.

NE (PRINCIPAL) FRONT: symmetrical, 3-bay, with slightly advanced, bow-fronted outer bays. Stepped base course, cornice at eaves, mutuled over centre bay, with blocking course above, projecting cills at windows. Stone steps with nosings at centre, accessing recessed entrance at ground behind distyle screen. Screen flush with 1st floor, composed of Tuscan columns and pilasters supporting entablature decorated with dentilled string course, florets and cornice. Entrance door centred behind screen with flanking narrow windows. Tripartite window at 1st floor. Flanking bows with Tripartite windows at ground floor, surmounted by balustraded parapets.

4-bay wing projecting to right with advanced 2-bay section to outer right; and eaves course. 1st and 2nd bays, 3 evenly spaced narrow windows at ground. Tripartite window bridging 3rd and 4th bays of 1st floor, with pilasters between and bracketted, corniced cill below.

SE ELEVATION: 2-bay elevation, with large 3-light canted bay window at ground floor surmounted by timber loggia. Loggia comprised of columns with exaggerated entasis and plain balustrade between, glazed door to house. Modern conservatory built on existing ashlar plinth at ground floor to left of, and intersecting with, canted bay.

NW ELEVATION: service hatch with ashlar margin at ground floor centring elevation, single narrow window to right with cill, but no margin.

SW ELEVATION: plain irregularly fenestrated to full length of house. Large bipartite window to outer left at 1st floor. Tall stair window at penultimate bay to right with bipartite-windowed projection to immediate left.

Plate glass timber sash and case windows to all openings, and curved

to profile of bows. Leaded stained glass to entrance door fanlight and flanking windows. 18-pane stair window with Art Nouveau leaded and stained glass depicting ship. 4-panel. 2-leaf timber entrance door, 2-panel oak inner door, leaded glass upper with column mullion. Grey slate roofs, piended at ends, wing and extending into bows with ridges terminated by decorative lead finials. Piended roof over loggia with overhanging eaves, exposed rafter ends, and boarded ceiling. Cast-iron gutters (profiled at end elevations) and downpipes with splayed tops. Polished ashlar stacks, mostly with circular cans.

INTERIOR: most original fixtures and fittings surviving except some chimneypieces. 3-pointed arch in drawing room with panelled soffit. Panelled timber doors, 6-panel to principal rooms of both floors, architraved at ground floor, 4-panel to service areas. Dining room containing original oak chimneypiece, buffet recess with flanking panelled pilasters. 3-pointed arch accessing stone internal stair with timber balustrade comprising turned balusters and square finialled newel. E bedroom, timber chimneypiece with corniced shelf and corniced and dentilled overmantle. Timber bracketted chimneypiece in billiard room to W. Vertically-boarded timber shower enclosure, round-arched opening over bath, with lead shower insert.

GARAGE: double garage with 3-bay sides with pilaster strips between each bay, all roughcast. 8-pane glazing at sides. 6-leaf folding, vertically-boarded, timber doors with 4-pane uppers. Grey slate piended roof.

BOUNDARY WALL AND GATES: coped, random rubble, boundary wall to Kilkerran Road. Channelled and panelled square gatepiers with bases and ogee domed caps. Wrought-iron, 2-leaf gates, with matching pedestrian gate to right.

Statement of Interest

In 1823, the Rev Norman McLeod, Minister of the Highland Parish Church, was granted a 76-year lease (from 1824 to 1900) by the Duke of Argyll of "the South Shore Park of Limecraigs.....bounded on the South by the Magazine Park or Quarry Green" with the condition that he would build and finish upon the ground a dwelling house (South Park) within the space of two years from the commencement of the lease. McLeod sold the remainder of the lease in June 1825 to Major George Colin Campbell of Malvern in Worcestershire for ?1025, "the house, offices, and garden, and the Park, above described", "with entry to the house etc at Whitsunday 1825, and to the Park from the separation of the Crop from the ground in the present year 1825". East Cliff appears to have been built by Campbell on this ground shortly after this year - perhaps for the use of his sisters. It was subsequently sold for ?710 by Miss Mary Campbell and her sister?s trustees to the writer David Colville, who lived there from 1855. An application for "additions" was made on the 25th March 1896 by a Duncan McCallum. Unusually, Clifford?s work completely conceals the earlier house, producing an elegant classical villa built with very good quality materials, finishes and fittings.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17773374

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

• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)