Cove Castle, Shore Road, Cove And Kilcreggan

Cove Castle, designed by James Sellars in 1867, is a three-storey, asymmetrical, rectangular-plan house in the Scots Baronial style. The building is constructed of stugged squared and snecked sandstone with polished stone margins and dressings, featuring a base course, string course, and crowstepped gables throughout.

The north (main) elevation is asymmetrical with two bays. The outer right features a curved wall corbelled to square at the upper stage. A gabled porch projects at ground right, angle buttressed with roll-moulded arris and ashlar saw-tooth coped roof topped by a ball finial. The deeply-moulded, round-headed door has an outer rope-moulded archivolt and a two-leaf panelled door set within a vestibule with Minton tiles and a glazed cast-iron door. To the right of the porch is a sandstone armorial plaque depicting a fish consuming fish on a geometric background of interlocking circles. At ground left are three ascending round-headed under-stair lights with stepped cills, transomed and mullioned; a large corresponding stair window rises directly above. A roll-moulded string course runs from the upper moulding of the outer right corner with a knotted label stop and hood-mould. A narrow window appears at principal floor outer right beneath a crowstepped gabled dormerhead. A lean-to crowstepped bay with an arrowslit occupies the outer left.

The south (rear) elevation is asymmetrical, with a crowstepped gable to the left interlocking a rounded stair turret at the outer left corner, corbelled to square bastion at the upper stage. Windows at the gable are symmetrically arranged: two narrow windows at ground, a tripartite window at first floor, and a bipartite window at second floor. A recessed block to the outer right contains a second-floor window with a timber bargeboarded dormer above. A low, two-storey lean-to service block in the re-entrant angle features a broad modern door at ground and a large pedimented dormerhead above.

A patio area in front of the outer left gable is delineated by low sandstone walls with ashlar chamfered coping. A curved entrance area is framed by solid corniced dies capped by urns and floored with tiles.

The west (seaward) elevation displays three bays. The outer left bay has a curved wall corbelled to square at attic with a crowstepped gable, containing a narrow window at ground and an off-centre window at principal floor with roll-moulding from the upper corbel forming a hood-mould with knotted label stop. Two gunloops and one arrow slit appear at regular intervals to the outer right of this bay. The centre bay features three closely spaced windows at ground (the base course forming the cill line), tripartite windows at first floor with roll-moulded reveals, and a small oriel on deeply moulded corbelling above with stepped plastic moulding, cannon head decoration, and billeted cornice. A gablet breaks the eaves above with moulding along the skews. Decorative cast-iron railings form a balustrade to right and left. The outer right bay curves as a stair tower corbelled to square bastion at the upper stage, with a small advanced door at ground, a lancet light above, and corbelling at the corner with an upper corbelled course and chamfered moulding delineating the area below the bastion. A gun-loop appears at the centre of the bastion, which is topped by a castellated parapet on deeply moulded corbels.

The east elevation features a tall gable to the left and a tall stair turret set into the re-entrant angle to the right, with a narrow lean-to bay to the outer right. The turret is corbelled above ground floor with arrowslit windows and deeply-set upper windows under a roll-moulded string course. The upper stage contains gun-loops at regular intervals, a dentil cornice, and a fishscale candlesnuffer roof topped by a lead finial.

The interior was not seen at the time of survey in 1993.

The boundary wall is constructed of stepped rubble with harl pointing and quartz sea boulder coping. Solid piers feature stugged arrises, cornices, and ashlar pyramidal caps with gun-loop decoration at the centre.