Ardbeg Baptist Church, Ardbeg Road, Rothesay, Bute

Ardbeg Baptist Church, located on Ardbeg Road in Rothesay, Bute, was originally built in 1855. A hall and vestry were added in 1923 by G.M. MacLintock, and a church hall was later lowered in the late 20th century. The church is a symmetrical, stripped Gothic building, featuring a three-by-three bay design with a large rose window centred in the east gable, which incorporates what are described as "nave and aisles". A pitched hall extends to the rear.

The exterior is constructed of squared and snecked, stugged yellow sandstone to the east side, with polished sandstone dressings. A polished stone plinth runs along the base, and a full-height, roll-moulded pointed-arch panel sits centrally beneath the gable. An advanced, gabled entrance is prominent, with slightly droved surrounds to the pointed-arched ground-floor openings. The side and rear walls are of harl-pointed random rubble sandstone. Tooled quoins are present, and painted bipartite openings feature tooled long and short rubble surrounds and chamfered stone mullions. A harled hall and linking wing extend to the rear.

The east, or entrance, elevation features steps leading to a gabled doorpiece, which contains a two-leaf boarded timber door set within a roll-moulded, shouldered arch. The door has curvilinear cast-iron fittings, pointed-arch chamfered reveals, and a pointed-arch hoodmould. Curvilinear cast-iron finials are positioned at the center, and to the right and left. Leaded slits are located at ground level, flanking the entrance, and single windows are situated at ground level in the outer left and right bays. An eight-light rose window sits above the entrance, with foliate stops to the hoodmould.

The north and south side elevations are three-bay in design, with later additions to the west. Bipartite windows are present at ground level in all three bays, and four gabled lucarnes are evenly distributed above. Dormers break the eaves in the outer left and right bays, with slate-hung piends, curvilinear cast-iron finials, and decorative cast-iron ridge brattishing. The additions to the west are harled.

The interior of the church contains stained glass windows on the east side, with opaque-glazed lower sections and stained-glass upper sections on the sides. The additional linking wing has four-pane timber sash and case windows, and tripartite rooflights are set into the rear hall. The roof is covered in graded grey slate, with raised stone skews, a coped apex stack to the west (with a circular can), and corniced apex stacks to the rear hall (also with circular cans).

Inside, the main hall was lowered in the late 20th century. Features include a mosaic-tiled vestibule floor, timber skirting board, a plaster cornice, and an office to the left, accompanied by a gallery stair to the right. Boarded timber dado panelling, timber pews, and cast-iron columns supporting a timber gallery to the east (now blocked) are also present. A panelled timber pulpit is positioned to the west, alongside a gableted minister's chair and an enclosing balustrade consisting of stop-chamfered timber newels, arcaded cast-iron uprights, and a timber handrail. An additional hall to the rear contains a hammerbeam roof, timber dado panelling, and a two-leaf timber panelled door.

A low, coped rubble boundary wall runs along Ardbeg Road, punctuated by stop-chamfered, whitewashed piers with pyramidal caps and decorative cast-iron railings between them.