Kilcreggan Hotel, Argyll Road, Kilcreggan

Kilcreggan Hotel

A later 19th-century villa with late 19th-century additions to the rear and west, and modern additions made during its conversion to a hotel. The building is two storeys with an attic, asymmetrically planned, and incorporates a tower. It sits on a sloping corner site at the intersection of Argyll Road and Donaldson's Brae. The walls are constructed in sandstone with ashlar margins and dressings, a string course, and bargeboard detailing. The eaves are advanced with exposed rafters.

The south elevation, which forms the entrance front, comprises three bays with a modern flat-roofed addition projecting from the outer right. A broad tower bay occupies the outer left, topped by a bargeboarded gable at attic storey. The tower features a bowed window at ground floor and a tripartite window at first floor with ashlar mullions and transoms set within ashlar pilasters, decorated with a cast-iron bowed balustrade. The attic storey sits within the gable with a tripartite window with timber mullions and transoms, flanking a patera in the gablehead, and finished with a cast-iron finial. A low coped parapet steps behind the gable. To the right is a lower two-bay block with a narrow gable and a full-height canted window with bracketed lead coping and a round-headed window in the gablehead. The recessed bay further right has its ground floor obscured by a single-storey flat-roofed modern block, with a gabled dormerhead containing a round-headed window.

The west elevation features six asymmetrical bays stepping down the falling ground. A full-height canted window with a gable over occupies the outer right, with an ashlar transom and rendered gablehead containing a patera at centre. A tall, broad wallhead stack stands to the left with a bipartite plaque and swan-neck pediment at its centre. Two narrow bays to the left are followed by a canted battlemented tower bay at the outer left. A modern piend-roofed timber conservatory is positioned off-centre to the right at ground level.

The north elevation comprises a broad three-bay block to the right with a tall wallhead stack advanced at its centre, a blind battlemented bay at the outer right, and a narrow bay to the left with windows at ground and first floor. A lower wing with a piend roof extends to the outer left. An advanced gable at the wing's centre contains a plate-traceried stair window, a decorative bargeboarded gable, and a bipartite window at ground floor. A piend-roofed canted dormer projects to the outer right. A later 19th-century, early 20th-century piend-roofed block occupies the outer left, with a canted window breaking the eaves to the right and a diminutive oriel at the outer left.

The roof is covered in grey slate with lead flashings and lead ball finials. Windows are plate glass timber sash and case with leaded upper panes. Wallhead stacks are broad and coped with chamfered angles and low circular cans.

The interior retains a dark oak stair with an arched screen, a fluted Corinthian column supporting the arched entry to the stair, and turned balusters. The ceiling above is compartmentalised plasterwork with a plain cornice. A modern bar has been inserted to the right off the hallway, with the exterior wall knocked through to a modern flat-roof extension. The dining room to the left off the stair occupies the tower bay and features a compartmentalised ceiling, oak dado, and leaded upper panes to the windows with centre oval sepia vignettes of Scottish castles. A leaded and etched stair window contains figurative panels. Many rooms on the upper floors have been converted for modern hotel use. The main room in the tower bay at first floor contains a large arched mirror on its north wall.

The boundary wall is constructed of tall whinstone with harl pointing and quartz boulder coping. The ashlar gatepiers feature stop-chamfered arrises, a cornice, and pyramidal caps.