53 Mountstuart Road, Rothesay, Bute

53 Mountstuart Road is a double villa designed by John Duncan and dated 1877. It is a symmetrical, two-storey, four-bay building that exemplifies the Alexander Thomson style and forms the end of a symmetrical terrace. The villa is grouped in a 1-2-1 arrangement with a single-storey, single-bay entrance porch that is recessed to the outer left.

The exterior is constructed of yellow sandstone ashlar with polished ashlar dressings. It features a raised base course, timber bracketed eaves above the ground floor canted windows, a raised stepped eaves course, and overhanging timber bracketed eaves. The ground floor has square-headed windows with chamfered reveals, while the first floor showcases round-arched windows with keystoned and architraved surrounds, supported by pilastered sandstone mullions. The sides and rear of the building are finished in random rubble sandstone.

On the north (entrance) elevation, there is cast-iron brattishing above three-light canted windows at the ground level in the outer bays. Above these, bipartite windows are aligned, with single square-headed windows at the first floor offset to the left and right. The ground floor features bipartite windows in two bays flanking the centre, with a decorative cast-iron bracketed balcony above. The first floor has a centrally located bipartite window flanked by single windows. A corniced side entrance leads to No 53, featuring a two-leaf timber panelled door set in a round-arched surround within the recessed porch, topped by a plate-glass fanlight.

The villa has 2-pane timber sash and case glazing and a graded grey slate roof, with replacement rainwater goods. It includes corniced ridge and wallhead stacks with octagonal cans.

The boundary walls consist of a coped random rubble wall along Mount Stuart Road, featuring an oval datestone set in a segmental-arched surround at the centre, inscribed with "Royal Terrace 1877," and topped with an anthemion and flanking consoles. The square-plan gatepiers have a raised base course and consoled broken pediments on each facet, with armorial panels centered below and topped with ball-finials, along with various cast-iron pedestrian entry gates.