Ardenvohr House, Gareloch Road, Rhu

Ardenvohr House, Gareloch Road, Rhu

This large two-storey asymmetrical villa was designed by Thomas Gildard and completed in 1857. Now the headquarters of the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club, it exemplifies the Scots Baronial style with Jacobethan details, dominated by a tower positioned over the entrance.

The building is constructed in stugged, squared and snecked honey-coloured sandstone with ashlar margins and dressings. It features a string course, eaves course, base course, and hoodmoulds throughout. The distinctive projecting sandstone rainpipes resemble cannons. Crowstepped gables are capped by substantial dies with ball finials. Decorative detailing includes buckle and star motifs, and strapwork over the ground floor windows.

The north-east elevation serves as the entrance front and comprises four asymmetrical bays with two bays to the outer right slightly recessed. The three-stage tower entrance is positioned left of centre, crowned by an elaborate pedimented and finialled parapet supported on deeply-moulded corbels. A diagonal buttress stands at the tower's base. The entrance is approached via steps flanked by a low waved wall topped with a small die and ball finial. The door itself is round-headed with an inner archivolt and surround of rope moulding on colonettes, framed externally by sandstone with nailhead moulding. The door is panelled and studded with an escutcheon above and stepped hoodmould. A window appears at first floor level, and a tripartite window with stone mullions occupies the third stage. To the left are two symmetrical bays divided by Y-shaped rainwater goods framing a datestone shield, with an eaves course raised to a finialled pediment topped by a star motif and wallhead stack. A gabled bay slightly recessed to the outer right contains a canted window at ground level with a stone roof, a bipartite window at first floor with strapwork above and a ball finial set in a small niche, an apex pediment, and a recessed window at ground with heavy corbelling above and a small window at first floor.

The south-east or garden elevation displays a three-bay main block with a recessed fourth bay to the outer left, alongside a modern flat-roofed brick and glazed extension. A gable to the outer right contains a full-height canted bay with stone transomed and mullioned four-light windows and a star motif in panels between ground and first floor, surmounted by a stone roof interrupted by a stepped shield. Two symmetrically disposed windows appear at ground level to the left, with a bipartite window at the centre at first floor and a square dormer above. A gable to the outer left is slightly advanced, with its ground floor obscured by the modern extension, but retains a timber transomed and mullioned window at first floor with an apex pediment. A recessed bay to the outer left is hidden at ground by the extension but displays a star-studded gabled dormerhead.

The north-west elevation comprises a three-bay main block with a crowstepped gable to the outer right. A balustraded link-wall and service block are advanced to the south-west. The eaves course is raised to finialled pediments below wallhead stacks symmetrically disposed to outer right and left, with three windows grouped at the centre at first floor level. A canted bay at the outer left contains a ground-level window with a stone roof and stepped string course. Strapwork adorns a window to the right. A small door to the outer right has a modern forestair beside it, and a large stair window has a string course stepped as a hoodmould. A gable rises to the outer right. A balustraded linking screen wall features a strapwork pediment at its centre above the balustrade, with a door at ground level to the right. The service block's gable projects to the right.

Throughout the building, windows are plate glass and four-pane or eight-pane sash-and-case types, except in the service block where eight-lying-pane sash-and-case windows are employed. The roof is finished in grey slate with moulded skewputts and apex and wallhead corniced stacks. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods with fleur-de-lis fixtures pass through the eaves moulding and string course.

The interior features an ashlar rib vaulted roof to the porch. The stair hall is particularly impressive, with dark oak doors, a half-glazed tripartite main door with open pediment, and heavy panelled lugged and shouldered doors throughout. The galleried stair hall contains a heavy carved and moulded stair beneath elaborate plasterwork with a roof light. Ground floor rooms display compartmentalised ceilings with strapwork details and ceiling roses.

The service block is a single-storey structure with attic accommodation, constructed of stugged, squared and snecked sandstone on a rectangular plan aligned north-east to south-west. It comprises five asymmetrical bays, including a bipartite shouldered-arch window to the outer left at ground, a window with a gabled dormerhead above to the right, a narrow window and boarded door with a letterbox fanlight off-centre to the right, and two further windows.

A terrace and balustrade located to the south-east of the house feature stylised sandstone balusters with corniced dies decorated with buckle motifs and curved console motifs.