Dalmore House, Rhu Road Lower, Helensburgh

Dalmore House, Rhu Road Lower, Helensburgh

William Leiper designed this imposing 2-storey and attic asymmetrical Scottish Baronial mansion in 1873, with a 2-storey service wing to the east. The building is constructed of red snecked sandstone rubble with red sandstone ashlar dressings. Windows are varied in character, including single, bipartite, tripartite and multi-partite lights with chamfered arrises or roll-moulded surrounds; ashlar mullioned and transomed windows feature throughout. Corbelled courses rise above the second floor on the east, south and west elevations, whilst crowstepped gables and beak skewputts complete the roofline treatment with 17th century Renaissance detailing.

The north (entrance) elevation presents the most formal face. A 2-storey wing occupies the left, with an advanced gabled entrance bay at centre and a stair window to the right. An engaged tower with lower service wing recessed to the right completes the composition. The entrance bay projects between ground and first floors, supported on corbels, and features a fine Renaissance doorcase with fluted pilasters on pedestals, a wide frieze carrying an armorial shield (St Andrews Cross) above a cornice flanked by foliated decoration. Above sits a roll-moulded surround to a window with ogeed pediment monogrammed RL and dated 1873. Lead-pane glazing appears at ground floor to the left. The recessed bay to the right contains an arrowslit to the left and slapped door to the right, with a semi-circular headed Elizabethan stair window above. The engaged outer tower displays three asymmetrically disposed windows at ground floor, two at first floor, and a bipartite window above set within an advanced corbelled panel beneath a lop-sided gable, with an arrowslit at the gable head.

The east (side) elevation features a projecting gabled bay to the outer right with rounded angles corbelled to square at first floor, displaying bipartite windows at ground and first floor levels. A taller gabled bay recessed to the left contains a tripartite window at ground, a transomed window to the left at first floor, a raised sculptured ashlar panel to the right, a corbelled course above, and an attic window above to the left.

The south (garden) elevation is the most elaborate. An advanced bay to the outer left displays a lop-sided gable and apex stack, with a sculpted ashlar panel at the gable head. An engaged round tower anchors the left angle, with an angle turret to the right. A lower wing to the far right features a 2-storey bow window at centre, surmounted by a semi-octagonal attic storey and flanked by dormers breaking the eaves with decorated dormerheads. A bay to the outer left contains a ground floor window; an angle tower with bipartite windows facing west at ground and first floor level displays three windows to the attic, a corbel course above the first floor and an attic cill course extending to the angle turret. A single window in the angle turret faces east. Both towers display conical roofs. The wing to the right contains a 5-light bow window with roll-moulded surrounds, mullions, cill and eaves courses, crowned by a finalled polygonal roof. A transomed single window appears to the left at first floor level. Dormers flanking the attic break the eaves, featuring semi-circular-headed open pediments with armorial shields to the tympanum, cradling and flanked by finials.

The west (side) elevation has its ground floor largely obscured by foliage. Windows to centre and right appear at first floor level, with a corbel string course. A bipartite window breaks the eaves at centre above, displaying a tall crowstepped dormerhead; a window to the right breaks the eaves with a decorated gablehead on the south elevation. A tower occupies the outer right, whilst an advanced gabled bay to the outer left features an apex stack.

The service wing consists of a low 2-storey block on the north elevation with a lop-sided gable to the right, windows to the left at ground and to the right below the gablehead, and a gabled return to the left with a sculpted ashlar panel at the gable head. A lower link joins the wing to the villa, with a slapped door to the right and a window breaking the eaves above with a gabled dormerhead. A semi-circular-headed doorway appears in a single-storey wall enclosing a service yard to the outer right, featuring a corbelled crenellated parapet. The south elevation of the wing displays a gabled bipartite window breaking the eaves to the left, and a gabled dormerheaded window to the right breaking the eaves with decorated tympanum and ball finial.

The windows are mostly plate glass sash and case. The roof is finished in green slate with corniced sandstone stacks; new rooflights appear to the north and south, whilst the original rainwater goods remain. The interior has been flatted and was not fully examined, though the vestibule features a lead-pane half-glazed door with surrounding panels and wainscot.