Wester Kames Castle, Bute

Wester Kames Castle is a late 19th-century Baronial-style castle on the island of Bute, incorporating the remains of an earlier keep dating from around 1700. The castle was rebuilt by Robert Weir Schultz between 1897 and 1900. It is an asymmetrical tower house, consisting of a four-stage, rectangular gabled tower, a corbelled stair turret, and a five-stage circular tower that becomes square at the fifth stage. The exterior is largely of harl-pointed random rubble sandstone with red sandstone ashlar dressings, though the south elevation is harled. A thin line of red brick marks the original height of the ruined structure. Features include polished sandstone corbelling, a moulded lintel course, moulded eaves, and crowstepped gables. Red sandstone quoins are used, as are long and short surrounds to moulded rybats with flush cills.

The north (entrance) elevation has a boarded timber and iron-studded door offset to the right. A doorpiece features an architraved surround, stylised consoles, a pediment, and chevron engraving on pyramidal finials. There is a single window at the third stage in the bay to the outer left. Irregularly-disposed single windows are present in the tower's exterior right, with a trefoil-headed window centered beneath the crowstepped apex and another centered beneath the northeast face.

The south (rear) elevation features a two-leaf boarded timber and iron-studded door at ground level, aligned with a single window at the first floor and another at the second floor, offset left of center. An advanced, corbelled window is centered beneath the apex at the third floor, with single openings in the corbelled turret to the outer right.

The west (side) elevation has small single windows at ground level flanking the center, and single windows on all floors in the bay to the outer right, with a pedimented third-floor window breaking the eaves. Narrow single openings are found in the corbelled turret to the left, along with irregularly-disposed windows in the full-height tower to the outer left.

The east (side) elevation is two-bayed, with single windows on all floors in both bays, accented by round-arched pedimented third-floor windows that break the eaves. A single window is set beneath the eaves in the corbelled turret to the outer left.

The windows are predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case, with some 2- and 4-pane casements in the tower and turrets. The roof is graded grey slate with raised stone skews and decorative lead rainwater goods dated 1900. Corniced apex stacks are topped with circular terracotta cans.

The interior includes a rubble-vaulted ground floor kitchen and dining area, and a spiral staircase to upper levels that features a lightly droved red ashlar octagonal central column and lightly droved red ashlar undersides. The first-floor drawing room has an ashlar fireplace, a timber picture rail, and heavy corbels beneath a boarded ceiling. Second-floor bedrooms have coved ceilings, sandstone fireplaces, and floral paintwork in a toilet. The main bedroom has a boarded timber barrel-vaulted ceiling, boarded timber walls, a columnar ashlar fireplace with tiled reveals, and a boarded timber washroom set in a corner alcove. The attic bedroom has a vaulted ceiling, and a cupboard door dated “Anno Doni 1900.”

The site is enclosed by a wrought-iron estate fence stamped "A & J Main & Co Ltd Glasgow, London & Dublin."