56 Mountstuart Road, Rothesay, Bute

56 Mountstuart Road is a double villa built in 1882 by John Duncan, designed in the style of Alexander Thomson. This symmetrical two-storey building features four bays and forms the end of a symmetrical terrace. The design includes advanced end bays and a decorative cast-iron columnar verandah that spans the recessed central bays. The exterior is made of coursed yellow sandstone, which shows slight weathering, with polished yellow sandstone dressings. Notable architectural details include a raised base course, dentil detailing beneath the canted eaves on the outer left and right, overhanging timber bracketed eaves, and decorative timber bargeboards on the gableheads. The building also has polished quoins, polished long and short surrounds to the openings, architraved panelling between floors, and consoled brackets beneath the projecting cills. The sides and rear are constructed of random rubble sandstone.

On the northern entrance elevation, there are two-leaf timber panelled doors at the center of the ground floor, topped by plate-glass fanlights. The projecting verandah below the first-floor windows features paired and triple sets of cast-iron Ionic columns, with dentil detailing beneath the eaves and decorative cast-iron balustrading. The first floor has single windows aligned above the ground floor, while both floors have 3-light canted windows centered in the gabled bays on the outer left and right. A cast-iron brattishing surmounts the French-pavilion tower on the outer right.

The windows are predominantly timber sash and case, with two panes on the lower sections and plate-glass on the upper sections. The roof is covered with graded grey slate and features fish-scale detailing on the French-pavilion tower. The original rainwater goods remain on the front, along with coped ridge and apex stacks and various circular cans.

The interiors were not seen in 1996. The boundary walls consist of a coped part-rendered stepped random rubble wall along Mount Stuart Road, which includes a circular datestone inscribed "Albany Terrace 1882." Square-plan polished sandstone panelled gatepiers flank the entrances, featuring bracketed cornices and projecting plinths, along with cast-iron pedestrian entry gates.