Southpark Residential School, Ascog, Bute

The Southpark Residential School is a later 19th-century building, now a private residence, situated in Ascog, Bute. Originally a school, it was converted to residential use in the late 20th century. The main building is a symmetrical, two-storey, three-bay structure of classical design. It is constructed from coursed yellow sandstone ashlar with polished sandstone dressings. The design features a raised base course, corniced ground floor window openings, a corniced string course, corbelled eaves, and regularly disposed anthemion parapet detailing. Pilaster mullions ornament the canted windows, and a consoled doorpiece gives prominence to the entrance. Channelled voussoir detailing surmounts the round-arched first-floor openings, which also have pilaster mullions. Architraved window surrounds are present on the side elevations.

A single-storey, five-bay former coach-house, accessed from Balmory Road (with a two-storey rear), originally served the school. The coach-house's front is of whitewashed rubble with raised, painted margins, while the rear is random rubble with extensive pointing.

The entrance, or south, elevation features steps to a double-leaf, timber-panelled front door, which is centrally positioned and framed by stylised flanking pilasters, paired consoles, and a surmounting cornice. An engraved glass side-light accompanies the door, and a bipartite window is placed above it on the first floor. Canted, three-light windows are positioned in the outer left and right bays of the ground floor. Tripartite windows, with pilaster mullions, align in the first-floor bays.

The north side elevation is three bays wide, with a single-storey, single-bay addition on the outer right. A bipartite window is located at ground level in the outer left bay, a single window is aligned above it at first floor level, and single windows are present at both floors in the two bays to the right, with a bipartite window centered in the addition.

The majority of windows are timber sash and case, with plate-glass upper sashes and two-pane lower sashes in the ground floor canted windows. The round-arched first-floor openings have replacement windows. The roof is grey slate, piended in style, with cast-iron barley-sugar downpipes, corniced sandstone stacks, and panelled square cans with dentilled cornices.

The interior retains timber panelled doors, plaster cornice work, ceiling roses, and timber shutters.

The north-facing elevation of the former coach-house is set on a sloping site, and features a gabled, double-leaf boarded timber door breaking the eaves in the penultimate bay to the outer right. A bipartite plate-glass fanlight is above the door. Flanking windows are single gabled, and a small single window is located in the penultimate bay to the outer left. A boarded timber hay-loft door is set within a gabled, round-arched surround in the bay to the outer left. The south-facing rear elevation of the coach-house includes a segmental-arched former carriage opening, a single door, two large openings, and a single-storey, lean-to addition. Three single windows are situated off-centre on the first floor. Glazing is a mix of 4- and 12-pane timber sash and case. The roof is grey slate, piended, with coped ridge and wallhead stacks and various octagonal cans.

Coped, harl-pointed random rubble boundary walls front the property. Curved yellow ashlar walls flank the entrance, with square-plan gatepiers featuring raised base courses, roll-moulded edge detailing, dentilled cornices, and tapering caps. Square-plan piers are also present on the outer left and right, with tapering caps.