Craigrownie Castle, South Ailey Road, Cove

Craigrownie Castle, South Ailey Road, Cove

Designed by Alexander Thomson around 1854, with later additions and alterations, Craigrownie Castle is a 2- to 6-storey asymmetrical Baronial castle set on high ground that falls sharply to the west. The building features a 3-stage tower and large oriel windows. It is constructed from whinstone and sandstone rubble with harl-pointing, ashlar margins and dressings. A base course, string course, eaves band, raised cills, stone mullions and transoms complete the detailing.

The south (entrance) elevation is L-plan with three bays, a tower and canted porch at the re-entrant angle. The square, 3-stage tower has a bipartite window at the second stage and narrow round-headed lights at the upper level, separated by moulded string courses. A crenellated parapet sits on a corbelled course. A Tudor-arched door to the porch is flanked by diagonal buttresses and blind niches, with a parapet raised as a plaque at the centre. An advanced shouldered jamb to the left of the porch carries a transomed and mullioned window at the upper stage and two small lights at the gablehead. A crenellated block advanced in front of this jamb has a canted red sandstone window. To the right of the porch is a narrow bay with a transomed and mullioned window with hoodmould at ground level and a gabled dormerhead above. A broad, parapetted gable to the right contains a slender full-height canted window at its centre. A segmental-arched pedestrian gate lies within the wall to the outer right.

The west elevation features a 3-bay block of gabled bays with a tower to the outer left and a return jamb to the outer right. A tall gabled block advances slightly to the outer right in whinstone with red sandstone details. A canted, parapetted oriel occupies the principal floor, with a door flanked by diagonal buttresses at ground level and a tripartite window at the second floor. A narrow, gabled bay recesses to the left with a battered base at ground level, a bipartite window at the first floor and a tripartite window at the second floor. A 4-stage tower with attic sits to the outer left, featuring an ashlar forestair against the basement and a Tudor-arched door on the right return flanked by buttresses. Three narrow windows sit above the base, a tripartite window at the third stage, and a slender oriel above. The parapet interrupts a deeply-moulded bracketed course of the attic, with a shallow attic and stepped parapet featuring a central window.

The north elevation has a rambling plan of a 3-bay main block with a jamb advanced to the outer left and a service block recessed to the outer left. A tower bay sits to the outer right with a narrow door and window at basement level, a tripartite window above, and a quadripartite window at principal floor level on deeply-moulded corbelling. A transomed and mullioned window at the upper floor is flanked by small blind bipartite openings. A lower 2-bay block to the left has windows symmetrically disposed with dormerheaded windows at attic stage. A 2-bay sandstone jamb advances to the left with a crenellated parapet and asymmetrically disposed windows.

The windows are predominantly plate glass timber sash and case with 4-pane over 6-pane lying pane glazing on the entrance elevation. The roof is covered in grey slate.

The stable mews and coach house form a former service court comprising a roughly U-plan arrangement of two gable-end blocks linked by a single-storey range to the east, abutting a single-storey outshot at the north (rear) wall of the castle. Both gabled blocks feature roughly hewn sandstone skews and shouldered stacks with large octagonal cans at the apex. The buildings are harled with exposed sandstone margins and dressings. A pedimented loft door (now internally blocked) appears on the north elevation of the stable mews with remains of a pulley over the door. All interiors have been remodelled for residential use, creating two individual dwelling houses. Timber framed windows, some timber sash and case, feature throughout. Grey slate covers the roofs, and cast-iron rainwater goods are present.

The elaborate boundary wall runs along Rosneath and South Ailey Roads, constructed from whinstone with rusticated coping and dressing. Broad dies with a low plinth wall feature quadripartite piercing between dies of bull-faced rusticated masonry and cruciform ironwork.

Gatepiers along Rosneath Road are tall with bull-faced rusticated surfaces, blind arches at centre and square caps with moulded coping. A 3-centred pedestrian archway lies to the left. A tall, square termination pier at the corner of Rosneath Road and South Ailey Road is rusticated with a battered base, a blind arrowslit at centre, a moulded neck and a square graded cap. A Tudor-arched pedestrian gate to the left has stepped coping above with a plaque at centre. A single gatepier on South Ailey Road is rusticated with a square graded cap.