Pier, Dunoon

The pier at Dunoon, designed by Clarke and Bell in collaboration with Sir William Copland, R A Brydon, and C J M Mackintosh, was constructed between 1896 and 1898, incorporating an earlier pier built by Campbell Douglas from 1867 to 1868. It has undergone some alterations in the late 20th century. This rare and exceptional 19th-century timber-pile ferry and steamer pier features a large T-shaped pedestrian section that connects to the earlier northern pier, which is currently used for vehicles as of 2011. At the pier-head, there is an ornamental Victorian waiting room and a pier master's office at the center, along with a rare signal tower that includes a later tearoom on the southern arm of the pier-head. The entrance ticket lodge is located at the slightly wider base of the pedestrian section.

The waiting rooms and pier master's office are single-storey, rectangular-plan timber pavilions with gable ends. They have round-arched windows on the ground floor. The southern elevation features a two-storey octagonal tower at the center, topped with a crowning ogee-roofed clock cupola and a weather vane. Flat-roofed verandas flank the tower, adorned with elaborate timber doorpieces leading to the waiting rooms. The northern elevation displays three half-timbered gables with canted window bays and timber details, including timber shingles on the exterior walls. The roofs are covered with red pantiles and include cupola ventilators.

The signal tower, built around 1896 to 1898, is an ornate four-stage, square-plan timber structure with a pantiled skirt and an ogee roof on the third stage. It features a pierced, ogee-roofed cupola and an ornamental cast-iron weathervane finial. This tower is adjacent to the southeast corner of a single-storey, flat-roofed former waiting room and tearoom building constructed in 1937.

The ticket lodge is a single-storey, cruciform-plan structure built around 1896 to 1898, with late 20th-century alterations. It has bowed eastern and western elevations topped with a conical pantiled roof.

The pier itself is supported by greenheart timber piles that are braced in pairs and further cross-braced with diagonal timbers. The outward-facing piers are battered, and the structure includes rod-iron connections with external bolts. The decking, rails, and balustrade are all made of timber.