Greenhouses, Clifton, Torwoodhill Road, Rhu is a Grade B listed building in the Argyll and Bute local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 18 March 1994.

Greenhouses, Clifton, Torwoodhill Road, Rhu

WRENN ID
keen-truss-poplar
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Argyll and Bute
Constituency
Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber MP: Brendan O'Hara (SNP)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
18 March 1994
OS grid reference
NS 276 837
Coordinates
56.01576, -4.76583
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

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

Description

The property comprises an earlier 19th-century Italianate villa and a later 19th-century coach house and stables, situated within a boundary wall, along with associated greenhouses.

The villa is a 2-storey, 3-bay structure with an arcaded loggia. It is built of grey harl with honey-coloured sandstone dressings, featuring a base course, string course, eaves band, quoin strips, timber bracketed eaves, and pilastered architraves. The west (entrance) elevation has a single-storey, piend-roofed block projecting from the main house with a round-headed window at its centre (a modern replacement). A 2-bay arcaded loggia is located in the re-entrant angle to the right, extending around a corner with a single arch. Stone steps lead to the left arcade bay. The south (garden) elevation showcases a 3-bay main block with an arch of the loggia to the outer left, a square bay window at ground level to the outer right with pilaster divisions supporting an entablature and parapet, and a canted window breaking the eaves at the first floor with three round-headed, arcaded windows supported by Ionic columns. A single window is centrally positioned. To the outer left at ground level is a tripartite window, and above is a bipartite round-headed window breaking the eaves, also with Ionic column mullions. The east elevation presents the main block to the left, with symmetrically placed windows at ground and first floor levels. A lower, 2-storey wing is on the right, faced in painted harl with ashlar margins, and has windows disposed asymmetrically—single windows at ground level, a bipartite window at the first floor left, and a single window at the first floor outer right. The north (rear) elevation is white harl, featuring a bipartite, round-headed stair window with etched glass in the centre of the rear block. A modern aluminium door is located to the inner left, accompanied by two barred windows to the right, with windows above. A service wing to the left is asymmetrical and has four bays to the right, including a 2-leaf coach door to the outer left and a narrow door in the penultimate bay to the left. Two windows with 12-lying-pane glazing are situated at first floor level. Plate glass sash and case windows are throughout. The roof is grey slate, piend in style, with a sandstone corniced wallhead stack topped with octagonal cans, and corniced ridge stacks for the wing. The interior was not inspected in 1993. The house was also previously known as Ras El Tin.

The coach house and stables, located north of the house on rising ground, date from the later 19th century and are constructed of rubble with sandstone margins, an eaves band, and strip quoins. The north elevation, fronting Torwoodhill Road, has a 2-leaf, boarded coach door at the centre, a narrow door immediately to the left, a door to the outer right, and a window to the outer left. Piend-roofed dormerheaded windows are symmetrically placed. The south (rear) elevation features a door at basement level to the outer right, a small window at the upper floor, and a window to the outer left. Stone steps provide access to a garden door and Torwoodhill Road against the east elevation. Plate glass sash and case windows are present, accompanied by grey slate roofing and tall, narrow wallhead stacks.

Located to the northeast of the house are greenhouses, consisting of a glazed lean-to structure on a brick base against a north rubble wall. A rubble boundary wall with semicircular coping encloses the property to the north and east.

Local climate

Greenhouses, Clifton, Torwoodhill Road, Rhu sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,970 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 92% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 62 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 98% of listed buildings. Of these, 40 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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  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
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