Former Benmore Distillery, Saddell Street, Campbeltown

Former Benmore Distillery, Saddell Street, Campbeltown

A former distillery complex dating from 1868, comprising a three-storey fifteen-bay former Duty Free warehouse with kiln at the north-west end, a two-storey three-bay office projecting to the north-east at the south-east end forming an L-plan, and former cooperage buildings lining the north-east side of a cobbled yard. The buildings are constructed with random rubble walls and stugged and droved ashlar dressings. Windows are margined with projecting cills along the Saddell Street elevation.

The office section has a two-storey three-bay asymmetrical elevation facing Saddell Street. At ground floor left bay there is a three-centre arched entrance pend with incised lettering in the voussoirs reading "BENMORE DISTILLERY". Paired four-panel doors with a fanlight above occupy the centre of the east pend wall, with a four-pane timber sash and case window to the outer right and a plate glass timber sash and case window to the outer left.

The north-west (rear) elevation features a three-bay design with a pend at ground floor to the right. A stone dog-leg stair with cast-iron balustrade provides access to the first floor at the left bay. A gabled vertically-boarded timber addition supported on a steel frame projects from the first floor centre.

The north-east elevation is a blank harled gable end. Timber sash and case windows appear at ground floor (twelve-pane facing Saddell Street, plate glass and ten-pane to pend and rear elevations), with modern glazing at first floor openings. The roof is grey slate with cast-iron downpipes and profiled gutters.

The principal warehouse and kiln range is oriented north-west to south-east with a square plan kiln at the north end. The south-east (Saddell Street) elevation displays a three-storey four-bay regularly fenestrated end, with margined windows and projecting cills. Ventilators with iron bars are positioned over the ground floor windows, and a door occupies the ground floor right bay.

The north-east (courtyard) elevation extends across fifteen regularly spaced bays. Two-leaf vertically-boarded timber doors with iron hinges appear at ground floor to the outer left at the second bay, with iron bars at the ground floor window. A slit window at ground floor sits between the third and fourth bays. A modern opening occurs at ground floor of the fifth bay, followed by a vertically-boarded timber sliding door with four-pane upper at ground floor of the sixth bay. A three-pane fixed-light appears at ground floor of the seventh bay. Rubble-infilled openings exist at ground floor of the tenth and eleventh bays, the latter with a vertically-boarded timber door at first floor accessed by an open timber stair. Two-leaf vertically-boarded timber doors occupy ground and first floors of the twelfth bay. The kiln elevation spans three bays to the outer right, with a modern opening centred at ground floor and brick infill and iron bars at second floor.

The north-west elevation is modern brick with large ground floor openings. The south-west elevation has a three-bay kiln elevation at the outer left with windows at second floor only, featuring timber infill and some remaining iron bars. The elevation to the right is regularly fenestrated with two and three-pane timber windows at first and second floors.

The roofs are grey slate with an M-roof to the warehouse, piended to Saddell Street and a piended pyramidal roof to the kiln (lantern removed), served by cast-iron downpipes.

The interior retains a concrete-covered first floor with the second floor removed. Some cast-iron columns and timber beams survive at centre, cement-rendered walls with sloping cills to windows, and open timber roof construction.

The cooperage comprises two adjoining two-storey buildings of rectangular plan lining the north-east side of the yard. The south building has modern fenestration and a harled finish. The north building is constructed of random rubble with stugged sandstone dressings. It features a large modern opening to the left of centre, two-pane fixed-lights at ground and first floor of the bay to the left, a rubble-infilled door at ground floor and a large modern four-pane fixed-light at first floor of the bay to the right. A blank bay occupies the outer left, with paired doors with concrete margins at the bay to outer right and a two-pane fixed-light above the left door. Grey slate piended roofs with cast-iron gutters and downpipes cover the range.

The boundary wall comprises random rubble walls of former warehouses to the north-west of the yard. A six-bay wall to the left has regularly spaced brick-infilled windows at first floor. The wall to the right has a large modern opening at outer right, with four openings to the left including brick-infilled windows to the right and doors to the left.