Invergare, Glenarn Road, Rhu

Invergare is a substantial two-storey house with basement, designed by James Smith in 1855 and set on falling ground at Glenarn Road, Rhu. An octagonal entrance tower was added almost certainly by A N Paterson in 1923, with further alterations by Paterson in 1933. The house exemplifies Scots Baronial style with 17th century architectural detailing.

The building is constructed of grey harl with honey-coloured sandstone dressings and margins, featuring a base course, chamfered reveals, quoin strips, an eaves band, crowstepped gables, and principal floor windows with cornices. The roof is of grey slate with tall, shouldered and corniced wallhead and apex stacks.

The asymmetrical, rambling plan is best understood by elevation. The north-east entrance elevation comprises four asymmetrical bays. The main block of the house is recessed to the outer left and linked by a single-storey block to the 1923 octagonal entrance tower, which sits in a re-entrant angle. A further three bays extend to the outer right. The tower rises in two stages and features an ornate doorpiece of polished sandstone with fluted Ionic pilasters supporting a broken swan-neck pediment, sheltering a boarded and studded door. A decorative armorial plaque dated 1923 sits above the door, with narrow flanking windows lighting the vestibule and strapwork panels over the lintel. The principal floor windows are symmetrically disposed beneath a moulded eaves cornice, and the tower carries a bell-cast slate roof with a lead thistle finial. A crowstepped gable to the right contains a 1920s five-light window at centre ground with sandstone mullions and transoms, topped by an ogeed half-piended lead roof. A pedimented dormerhead at first floor right return now serves as an enlarged door reached via a modern dog-leg cast-iron forestair. A narrow link-bay connects a two-bay battlemented block to the outer right, with windows symmetrically disposed, though the left ground window is obscured by a modern fire escape. A blank sandstone pedimented plaque appears above the centre, flanked by pedimented first-floor windows either side of a corbelled wallhead stack.

The south-east elevation shows the two-storey main block over a raised basement, with the link block and entrance tower recessed to the outer right. The outer right bay has symmetrically disposed windows and a pedimented dormerhead at second floor. An advanced crowstepped gabled bay to the right contains a full-height tower in the re-entrant angle. Pairs of windows are symmetrically disposed at ground and principal floors within the gable, with a single pedimented window at the gablehead and a bracketed cill. Curved balustrades and stone steps descend to the garden, forming the boundary between main block and entrance. The tower itself has symmetrically disposed windows at ground and first floors, a pair at second floor, and a copper riveted conical roof with finial. A lean-to single-storey link-block to the right, with a recessed parapet, connects to the entrance tower.

The south-west elevation comprises four bays. A slightly advanced crowstepped gabled block with bartizans to the outer right contains a two-storey sandstone square bay with a single window at second floor and a blank plaque at the gablehead. Three near-symmetrical bays to the left are flanked by a bartizan at the left corner, with the centre bay raised to a crowstepped gable. The right and left bays feature pedimented dormerheads. The principal floor is characterized by tall windows linked by a full-length, heavily bracketed broad cill, with the centre window featuring sandstone mullions.

The north-west elevation displays three asymmetrical bays. A tall tower bay to the outer left features an eaves cornice and battlemented parapet, with a full-height projecting quadripartite polished sandstone window and a curved balustrade to the front area. The outer right bays are two-storey with basement on the ground falling to the south. A lower middle bay has a window offset to the left and a lean-to wooden porch to the outer right at ground level. A corbelled canted oriel adorns the principal floor, with a pedimented window at the upper floor and a small window to its right. A slightly advanced crowstepped outer right gable carries a two-storey canted bay window and a single window at the gablehead, with a square bartizan to the outer right corner featuring cruciform arrowslits and clasping the left corner.

Windows throughout comprise eight-pane sash and case windows, four-lying-pane sash and case windows, and two-over-four-pane sash and case windows for the tower and upper windows of the sea elevation.

The interior retains significant detail from both the original house and the 1920s additions. The vestibule features polished sandstone arches, marble floor and skirting with red tiled flooring. A barrel-vaulted corridor leads from the entrance tower to a cloakroom with 1920s wood panelling. A columned classical arch divides the hall. The stone stair features twisted timber balusters, now cut off from the upper floor by a new ceiling for the upper flat, and is surrounded by white-painted panelling. The dining room contains a wooden door and picture rail, with a coved ceiling, an inglenook to the left of the bay window, an ashlar fireplace, and wood panelling. A white marble classical chimneypiece with figurative central panel survives.

The balustrades comprise cast-iron rinceau work with ashlar die and base bounding the south-west side of the house. Curved balustrades in similar decorative style appear in sandstone to the west, with stone steps and dies to the east.

The entrance is marked by sandstone piers with rounded, stop-chamfered arrises and corniced caps surmounted by ball finials. Paired piers to the right mark the pedestrian entrance. The decorative cast-iron gate features a rinceau lower panel with fleur-de-lis headed railings.