Balmoral Hotel, 98-100 George Street, Oban

The Balmoral Hotel, located at 94-96 George Street, Oban, was built in the later 19th century. It is a three-storey Italianate hotel arranged in a U-plan on a corner site, with a tenement block behind and shops at ground level. The frontages on George Street and Craigard Street are constructed of polished ashlar, while the rear and east gable walls are of roughly squared rubble with stugged sandstone dressings. The shops have cornices above their doorways. The upper floor windows are architraved on the west elevation, roll-moulded on the south elevation, and round-arched at second-floor level. A deeply bracketed eaves cornice runs along the building.

The west (George Street) elevation is six bays wide and symmetrical, with a mirrored arrangement above the ground floor. The original shopfront is located to the left of the centre, featuring a base course, roll-moulded door and window surrounds, and two-leaf panelled storm doors; modern shopfronts are present elsewhere. Bipartite windows are found in the outer and centre bays on the upper floors. The second-floor windows have scroll details at the cills, and the first-floor windows are corniced.

The south (Craigard Road) elevation, set on rising ground, has seven bays (four bays and three stepped bays). Bipartite windows are present in bays five and seven. A pilastered, round-arched entrance to the hotel is centrally positioned, with an architraved surround, keystone, and entablature. A matching doorway to the tenement is situated in the penultimate bay to the right. An original shopfront is located to the left of the doorway, matching the shopfront on the west elevation. The elevation curves back to meet the streetline on the outer right.

The rear elevations have evenly spaced windows, including stair windows to landings. A projecting stair tower is situated at the rear elevation of the Craigard Road block.

The north (John Street) elevation has a two-bay gable end to the narrow street, with a small square window at the gablehead. Bay 1 includes an additional bay in a projecting wing. Plate glass timber sash and case windows are on the upper floors, while the rear elevations feature four-pane sash and case windows with coloured glass in the hotel stair windows. Gabled, slate-hung dormers are on the west pitch, with bipartite round-arched windows in bays 1-3; modern alterations have been made to the dormers on the right. Piend-roofed, slate-hung dormers with four-pane sash and case windows are on the rear pitches. The roof is grey slated and divided by skew copes at the chimney walls. Square cast-iron downpipes have decorative brackets. Corniced ashlar stacks with octagonal cans are present.

The interior features a stone stair, an iron balustrade, and a timber handrail toward the rear of the hotel.