Description

Later 19th century; converted to flatted dwelling house 1908; alterations mid to later 20th century; entered at front and rear. Symmetrical 2-storey, 3-bay castellated Gothic style former museum set on sloping site; 2-storey, single bay battlemented tower centred at front (entrance 1st floor flat). Tooled cherry cocked yellow sandstone to front; coursed, tooled yellow sandstone to sides and rear; lightly droved polished yellow sandstone margins. Droved base course; raised lintel course beneath overhanging eaves; corbelled parapet to tower. Droved strip quoins; stugged long and short surrounds to openings; flush cills. Pointed-arch bipartite windows set in tower (timber mullions). Single storey boarded timber lean-to addition centred at rear (entrance ground floor flat). Roofless, coursed stugged sandstone single storey, 4-bay outbuilding to rear; stugged long and short surrounds to openings; raised margins.

E (FRONT) ELEVATION: projecting tower at centre comprising 2-leaf timber panelled door at ground; bipartite fanlight; chamfered door-surround; angular hoodmould with figurative label-stops. Single window at 1st floor; battlemented parapet corbelled out above. Single windows at both floors in re-entrant angles to left and right; single windows at ground recessed to outer left and right.

W (REAR) ELEVATION: lean-to addition centred at ground; single windows in bays to outer left and right; regularly fenestrated at 1st floor.

N (SIDE) ELEVATION: single window at ground off-set to left of centre; blind single windows at 1st floor in bays to outer left and right.

S (SIDE) ELEVATION: single window at ground off-set to right of centre; narrow single window in bay to outer right.

Predominantly 6-pane timber sash and case windows; pointed-arch bipartite casements set in tower. Modern roof tiling; replacement rainwater goods. Coped sandstone ridge stack to S; octagonal cans.

INTERIOR: adapted to form 2 separate flats; few original features. Decorative cast-iron uprights to stair set in tower to front; timber treads; exposed rubble walls.

OUTBUILDING, N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: door-opening at ground in bay to outer left and penultimate bay to outer right; single window openings in remaining bays.

BOUNDARY WALL, GATEPIERS AND GATE: round-arched rubble coping to random rubble wall to Westland Road. Ball-finialed cast-iron gatepiers flanking pedestrian entrance to E elevation; cast-iron gate.

Statement of Interest

Former museum of the Archaeological & Physical Society (1873) and at one stage, a janitor?s house for the nearby school. An advertisement in The Buteman states "...the museum on Chapelhill contains choice collections of minerals, plants, fossils, birds of Bute, coins, curiosities and antiquarian remains. It is well worth a visit. The view from the tower is the finest to be obtained in Rothesay." Built on the site of the ancient chapel of St Bride (shown on Wood?s map, 1825, demolished circa 1860). Externally intact despite conversion to form 2 separate flats. Note the 2-leaf timber panelled door, bipartite pointed-arched windows and battlemented parapet.

Rothesay is one of Scotland's premier seaside resorts, developed primarily during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and incorporates an earlier medieval settlement. The town retains a wide range of buildings characteristic of its development as a high status 19th century holiday resort, including a range of fine villas, a Victorian pier and promenade.

The history and development of Rothesay is defined by two major phases. The development of the medieval town, centred on Rothesay Castle, and the later 19th and early 20th century development of the town as a seaside resort. Buildings from this later development, reflect the wealth of the town during its heyday as a tourist destination, and include a range of domestic and commercial architecture of a scale sometimes found in larger burghs. Both the 19th and early 20th century growth of the town, with a particular flourish during the inter-war period, included areas of reclaimed foreshore, particularly along the coast to the east of the town and around the pier and pleasure gardens.

(List description revised as part of Rothesay listing review 2010-11).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77770232

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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