4 to 6 (even numbers) Argyll Square (former County Buildings), Oban is a Grade B listed building in the Argyll and Bute local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 16 May 1995. Former county buildings, bank. 3 related planning applications.

4 to 6 (even numbers) Argyll Square (former County Buildings), Oban

WRENN ID
over-gargoyle-cobweb
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Argyll and Bute
Constituency
Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber MP: Brendan O'Hara (SNP)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
16 May 1995
Type
Former county buildings, bank
OS grid reference
NM 859 298
Coordinates
56.41206, -5.47163
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: EPC · related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

4 to 6 Argyll Square, formerly the County Buildings, is a mid-19th century bank that was raised and redeveloped in the later and late 19th century. It is a three-storey and attic structure with a five-bay layout arranged in a 1-3-1 grouping, designed in a simple classical style. The building features stugged, coursed sandstone with polished ashlar dressings on the Argyll Square elevation. The rear elevation is made of grey granite rubble, with sandstone quoins at the first floor and sandstone dressings around the windows. There is a base course and a moulded string course at the second floor cill and lintel levels, along with a frieze and cornice at the eaves. The quoins are channelled, and the windows have architraves and stone-bracketted cills on the first floor.

The southwest elevation facing Argyll Street is symmetrical with five bays, where the center bay is slightly advanced. The entrance door is architraved and features a blind fanlight, frieze, and cornice. A substantial gabled dormer sits at the center, adorned with fluted pilasters, a string course, and a pediment above a single window. The outer bays on the ground floor have round-arched windows, complete with architraves and vermiculated keystones.

The east (rear) elevation is asymmetrical, showcasing a projecting, bellcast, piend-roofed stair. It includes four-and eight-paned sash and case windows, with a bipartite window and another window above featuring plate glass. Originally, all windows were four-pane sash and case, but the astragals have been removed from the ground floor left window and the lower sashes of the first floor windows. The building has scroll-flanked and corniced chimney stacks at the gable, a corniced chimney stack at the ridge, and another at the rear elevation eaves. The roof is piended and grey slated, linking to the main chimney stacks, and features piend-roofed, slate-hung dormers with 18-pane casement windows on both the front and rear pitches.

Local climate

4 to 6 (even numbers) Argyll Square (former County Buildings), Oban sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 2,230 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 99% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 55% of listed buildings. Of these, 18 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 3 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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