Provost Ross's House, 48 Shiprow, Aberdeen

Provost Ross's House, located at 48 Shiprow in Aberdeen, dates back to 1593 and features later additions to the west. It was restored and internally linked by Alexander George Robertson Mackenzie in 1954 and is now part of the Aberdeen Maritime Museum complex, established in 1996. This pair of rare and early three-storey townhouses occupies a prominent position overlooking the harbour on a sloping site. The building is constructed of roughly squared and snecked rubble, with an attic and first-floor cill course at No 48 and irregular fenestration.

The principal doorway to No 48 has a roll-moulded surround situated in the right re-entrant angle of the advanced three-storey and attic gable, featuring an armorial plaque above. The building has chamfered quoins, a corbelled out and gabled attic level that breaks the eaves, and a stone pedimented dormer that also breaks the eaves to the left. A coped ashlar curtain wall encloses a small forecourt at the central bays. No 50 has a double arched arcade with a moulded central capital and cast iron gates, along with a recess behind. The rear elevation has a full-height, piended roof outshot.

The windows are predominantly multi-paned timber sash and case, and the roof is covered with grey slate and features a stepped design. There is a broad stack on the right gable, ridge stacks elsewhere, and coped ashlar skews and skewputs. The building also has cast iron rainwater goods.

Inside, the restoration in 1954 followed the original multi-level floor plan. Four rooms retain wide flat-arched fireplaces with chamfered surrounds, although two of these are currently obscured by museum displays. The east rooms feature exposed beam ceilings, and some secondary spaces have chamfered door surrounds. There is a spiral stair outshot to the rear, although the stair is no longer in situ. The former kitchen on the ground floor has stone vaulting, and some internal window shutters remain in the northeast rear room.