Description

1888. 2-storey and attic, asymmetrical Scots Baronial house with round towers, on ground falling to S. Bull-faced grey sandstone, ashlar margins and dressings. Battered base; string course; hoodmoulds; mullion-and-transom principal windows with roll-moulded surrounds; eaves moulding; crowstepped gables.

E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 3-bays asymmetrically disposed with lower gabled garage block to outer right. Half-gabled and lean-to buttress block advanced against outer left gable. Entrance in penultimate left bay reached via curved steps; pierced, stepped balustrade, cast-iron grid infill, lower lean-to buttress bay on deep base to outer left; feline sculpture behind crowsteps. Depressed-arch door, moulded surround, 2-leaf boarded door, radiating fanlight, hoodmould. Small window at ground right, transomed and mullioned window above, crowstepped gable over; feline sculpture above eaves moulding. Broad gable to outer right, bipartite window at ground, single window above, semicircle ventilation opening in gablehead. Single storey, crowstep gabled garage block to outer right, modern garage door.

S ELEVATION: 2-storey, 2-bay with 3-storey round tower bay to outer left. 3-stage round tower, deep battered base, ashlar vents; battlemented corbelled bartizan in re-entrant angle to right; shaped parapet, balustraded rising to shaped solid crenellated parapet; trefoil at centre, feline sculptures. String course between ground, 1st floor, heavily moulded cornice between 2nd floor and upper stage; windows symmetrically disposed at each stage, those at 1st floor smaller; bipartites at upper stage, balustrade rising to crenellated portion at centre, pierced by trefoil; feline sculpture. Corbelled bartizan to outer right, blind cruciform arrowslit. Bay to right, windows disposed to left of bay; crenellated parapet, tripartite square dormer rising behind; broad crowstepped gable to outer right, bipartite at ground, bipartite at 1st floor, string course stepped over window.

W ELEVATION: round tower to outer right; crowstepped gabled bay abutting to left, capped by battlemented apex stack; windows asymmetrically disposed, bipartite at ground to left, relieving arch over small window above, window at centre of attic stage. Lower 2-bay block to left, narrow bay, windows symmetrically disposed; broader bay to outer left, bipartite ground, relieving arch over, bipartite at 1st floor, crowstepped gable breaking eaves over, plaque in gablehead. Single storey, gabled service bay to outer left, 2 windows symmetrically disposed, attic window at centre in gablehead, coped apex stack.

E ELEVATION: long single storey service block; broad gable to outer right, apex stack. Boarded door, lettterbox fanlight to right, window to outer left, narrow light in gablehead, tall apex stack. 3 bays to right, boarded door at centre, window to right, narrow window, boarded door, letterbox fanlight to left.

Timber plate glass sash and case windows. Grey slate roof, lead flashings; tall, broad coped ridge, apex stacks, circular cans. Skewputts.

INTERIOR: not seen 1993.

Statement of Interest

Cats Castle is a large, well-detailed and prominently-sited example of late 19th century Scots-Baronial architecture. The house was built for Robert Craig who was a lawyer and Sheriff Clerk in Dumbarton. It was originally called Hazelwood.

List description updated, 2012.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17847998

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

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  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
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  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
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  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
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