Dunollie House

Dunollie House is a two-storey house in two distinct building phases. The earlier phase is an L-plan house dating from 1746-7, built to replace Dunollie Castle (a scheduled monument) as a residence. The later phase, dating from about 1830, is a large L-plan two-storey and attic house that dwarfs the original building, which was subsequently demoted to a service wing. The two phases interlock, creating an approximate rectangular plan with a single-storey wing projecting east. The walls are of rubble construction, coursed to the later phase with margins and projecting cills to openings, and dressed in droved stone.

The earlier house features a gabled end to its north range with a connection to the later phase; an entrance door between the two phases is sheltered by a canopy roof. The north elevation has three regularly spaced bays with chamfered margins to window openings. The south range has an end gable with a lean-to addition at ground level. The east elevation shows four irregularly spaced bays in a two-storey range, with a modern flat-roofed sun porch at the second bay and an entrance door behind it.

The later house presents its principal facades to the south and west. The west elevation, which is the principal front, has three bays and is symmetrical except for a single-storey pilastered and corniced entrance porch to the left of the first bay. The south elevation features a gabled first bay with symmetrically placed small windows in the gable-head, and a blank east gable to the south range.

Windows throughout comprise four-pane timber sash and case windows to the original building phase, with a single bipartite window to the east elevation fitted with plate glass timber sashes. The later building has 12-pane timber sash and case windows to ground and first floor openings, as well as to the porch and single-storey wing, with eight-pane windows to the attic storey, which are bipartite to dormers. The roofs are covered in grey slate with skew copes; the later ashlar gabled sections have slate-hung dormers at the head of each bay to the west front and matching dormers to the head of bays two and four of the south front. Chimney stacks are coped with circular cans; those of the earlier house are rendered with skews and stacks, while those of the later house are in ashlar.

The interior retains most original fittings. A stone stair with cast-iron balusters and timber handrail survives. The south room contains a green and white marble chimneypiece moved to this position in 1967, with a niche to the right decorated with scallop-shell carving and panelled shutters. The first-floor dining room features a black marble fireplace, four-panel doors, grained shutters, and a fine cornice.

The stables comprise three single-storey random rubble ranges forming an approximate U-plan with open corners. The west range has been modernised and converted to a dwelling. The south range has an L-plan with a nine-bay north elevation, incorporating cart arches in bays seven and eight, vertically-boarded timber doors (some slatted), and a grey slate roof with cast-iron skylights. The north range is roofless but retains a six-bay south elevation with doorways in bays three and five. A cast-iron pump stands at the centre of the courtyard.

The Gardener's Cottage is a three-bay, single-storey and attic house to the north of the stables. It has whitewashed rubble walls with a modern timber lean-to porch at the centre. Four-pane timber sash and case windows are set in a grey slate roof with timber, gabled, slate-hung dormers. Chimney stacks are coped with circular cans.

The Walled Garden was built around 1825 as part of estate improvements for Dunollie House, situated northwest of Oban on sloping, south-facing ground between a precipitous rock outcrop on which Dunollie Castle stands and the shoreline to the south. The garden has rubble walls approximately 3 metres high and a broadly rectangular plan. The north wall is crenellated and spans between two natural rock outcrops. The west wall features a segmental arched entrance (now blocked) and a projecting square tower at the northwest corner. The entrance at the southeast corner is flanked by a round tower with slit windows and a crenellated parapet. The eastern third of the south wall rises in a series of steps. An internal wall running north to south divides the walled garden.