Description
Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority
Royal Cottage, situated in landscaped gardens in an isolated location just above the S bank of Loch Katrine, was built circa. 1857 to accommodate Queen Victoria when she visited the site to open the Loch Katrine water scheme (see Notes). A single storey and attic rubble cottage with some 'Picturesque' gothic detailing and distinctive stacks with grouped tall circular flues. It is roughly T-plan with a long rear service wing and the shorter cross wing containing the principal rooms. The cottage also has several small outbuildings to the rear. The cottage is currently subdivided into 3 separate dwellings.
Description:
The 3-bay asymmetrical principal elevation faces N over the Loch, giving the public rooms the best view; the left bay is an advanced gable with a canted bay window to the ground floor. The centre bay has a small ashlar porch, the gabled roof of which is ornamented by a fretted bargeboard; within the pointed arched door opening is a 2-leaf timber panelled storm door with fanlight above. The right bay has a double window and a dormer to the roof. To the far right is a lower blank single storey section which may be a slightly later addition. The E elevation of the principal block is dominated by a large wall-end shouldered stack with a square blank panel with a moulded surround. The stack is flanked by a window to each side.
The long rear wing has a slightly lower ridge line than the principal block, and has a near-symmetrical 4-bay W elevation with 4 gabled dormers, and 2 additional door openings to the ground floor, one of which is blocked, and one to the centre with a timber-boarded door and 2-light fanlight. The E side of the rear wing has a small projecting block with a parallel ridge to the left, and a cat-slide roofed section to the right.
Interior:
To No 3, some rooms with timber-boarded ceilings. Access to Nos 2 and 3 not gained during resurvey 2005.
Materials:
Random rubble; tooled ashlar lintels and deep base course; large rubble quoins. Timber sash and case windows, mostly 8-pane glazing, 4-pane glazing to ground floor of principal block. Pitched roofs; graded slates; plain bargeboards; sparred overhanging eaves. 1 wall-end stack (described above) and 1 small wall-head stack to E elevation of principal block; 1 gable-head stack to W gable of principal block; 3 ridge stacks to rear wing; all stacks coped ashlar with varying numbers of tall circular flues with circular cans. Mostly cast-iron rainwater goods.
Outbuildings:
Directly to the rear of the service wing is a rectangular-plan single storey pitched roofed outbuilding with several large openings, some of which have been enlarged. This was probably originally a coachhouse and stables; there is a hayloft door to the E gable. Just to the W of the house is an L- plan single storey rubble building with 2 piended roofs, likely to have originally been used as a dairy or laundry and a small square-plan piend roofed rubble building.
Jetty and Boathouse:
Random rubble jetty with concrete walkway and decorative cast-iron railings; timber pier-head. Rectangular-plan, gabled boathouse. Random rubble with timber boarded gable head over entrance. Grey slate roof.
Statement of Interest
A-Group With Loch Katrine, Royal Cottage Aqueduct Intakes Including Retaining Walls And Railings (Former Glasgow Corporation Water Works).
The Royal Cottage was originally built to accommodate Queen Victoria when she came to officially open the Loch Katrine water scheme in 1859; it was originally intended that she would be accommodated in specially designed mobile accommodation, but she demanded that a house be built for her use. In the event, the 21 gun salute which was fired to mark the occasion shattered all the windows and the Queen was only able to use the cottage to shelter from the weather and did not stay overnight there. Subsequently the cottage was used by Glasgow councillors as a holiday home before being subdivided (information from tenant).
External Links
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
London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover