Auchengower, Cove

Auchengower, Cove

A later 19th-century house remodeled and extended by architect Alexander McInnes Gardner in 1912. The building is a 2-storey and attic structure over a raised basement, built on an asymmetrical Z-plan and styled as a Jacobean Baronial house with Italianate details. The walls are constructed of whinstone rubble with harl pointing, ashlar margins and dressings, stop-chamfered arrises, and stugged quoins. A whinstone base course runs throughout, with diminutive gabletted decorative motifs used as a recurring feature. Band courses, an eaves cornice, and a crenellated ashlar parapet complete the external treatment.

The southwest (entrance) elevation presents an L-plan, 3-bay block with a square 4-stage entrance tower set into a re-entrant angle. A 3-storey gable advances to the outer left, featuring an ashlar bow at ground level with a deep battered base course on a whinstone plinth. Pointed arrowslits are symmetrically disposed in the base, with chamfered reveals and floral chip-carved friezes to lintels. A waterleaf cornice and battered blocking course carrying gablet motifs surmount this element. Above is a bipartite window with a stepped hoodmould, and the gablehead carries a tripartite window under a shouldered coped gable. The 4-stage parapetted entrance tower is recessed to the right within the re-entrant angle, featuring a stone stair and platt with gabletted ashlar dies and a roundel-pierced balustrade. A pointed arch door inset within a 3-centred arch panel contains a 2-leaf panelled door with a column bearing a crocketted capital set into the corner. A pointed window on the left return is set into a 3-centred panel with a roundel balustrade cill, possibly preserving an original opening. A narrow window at the 1st floor carries a stepped hoodmould over a plaque, with a gabletted battered apron below containing carved beast details. Above this is an ashlar stage with a small arcade of pointed arch windows, followed by a whinstone 4th stage with segmental-headed windows and a balconette on paired consoles on the southwest side. The ashlar crenellated parapet is supported on a deep consoled course, with ashlar waterspouts at each corner and chamfered arrises. A 2-storey block over a raised basement projects to the right, containing a basement window, a tall bipartite window at the principal floor beneath a console-supported canopy, and a 3-centred window above beneath a shaped pediment breaking the parapet line.

The southeast elevation displays 4 bays over 2 storeys with a raised basement, with a tall 3-storey gable advanced to the outer right. The gabled bay is slightly advanced, featuring a V-shaped canted window at ground level, a blocking course on a dentil cornice, and corbelled gabletted decoration at the centre. Above is a bipartite window set in a 3-centred ashlar panel with a string course stepped as hoodmould, a bipartite window in the gablehead, and a shouldered coped gable. To the left is a narrow bay with a 3-centred arched window at the upper floor beneath a shaped pediment breaking the eaves. A tripartite window at ground level and a bipartite window at the 1st floor occupy the space to the left. The outer left bay contains a V-shaped canted window at ground level, matching the treatment of the outer right window, and a bipartite window at the 1st floor.

The northwest elevation is 2-storey over a raised basement, with a tall gabled block slightly advanced to the outer left. This gable features a base course, a tall bipartite window at the principal floor, a 3-centred arched window above with a string course stepped as hoodmould, a bipartite window in the gablehead, and a shouldered coped gable. Two symmetrical bays occupy the space to the right, with a wallhead stack to the right and a crenellated parapet terminating the outer right bay.

The northeast elevation contains a piend-roofed block advanced to the outer left with narrow windows to its right and a blank outer left face. A wallhead stack stands at the centre. An asymmetrical block projects to the right, featuring a small window at ground level and a large pointed-arch stair window with a shaped pediment breaking the eaves above, followed by narrow windows and a blank outer right bay.

The roof is finished in grey slate with lead flashings, ashlar coping to the skews and kneelers, and tall coped wallhead stacks with pierced cans. A corniced ridge stack with perforated cans runs the length of the roof. Windows throughout are plate glass timber sash and case, with plate glass over 6-pane sash and case windows on the bow.

Internally, the entrance features a shoulder-arched, half-glazed vestibule door of 12 panes over a lower panel, set within a pointed arch frame with a fanlight. Earlier 20th-century doors with armorial plaques are found in downstairs rooms. A wooden balustered stair screen and plasterwork cornices are visible. The stone stair features a wooden newel post with a mace-head finial, cast-iron barley-sugar columns, a wooden stair rail, and a monochrome leaded stair window.

A balustraded garden wall extends along the west side of the house, constructed of sandstone uprights with sandstone slab coping set on broad whinstone dies. It terminates at the north with square piers built of sea-pebble, quartz and whinstone in band construction. Drum piers of sea-pebble construction at the south feature an ashlar band course and ashlar circular caps. Stone steps down to the garden are flanked by a solid whinstone balustrade with swept ashlar coping. A low curved wall of whinstone with harl pointing and ashlar slab coping, topped with a ball finial, completes the garden boundary.