Remains of Poltalloch House, Kilmartin

Designed by William Burn and built between 1849 and 1853, Poltalloch House is a two-storey, extensive Jacobean-style country house arranged around a central courtyard. It became a ruin after the roof was removed in 1957. It is constructed of white sandstone ashlar, with internal walls of random rubble and red brick. There are shaped quoins, a string course between the ground and first floors and a balustraded cornice with obelisk finials. There are full-height canted bay windows with curvilinear gables above with a letter M in relief. The windows have stone mullions and transoms (many no longer survive). The ground floor windows of the principal public rooms have lower window cills. There are some surviving groups of octagonal chimney stacks.

The east (entrance) elevation is seven bays wide and asymmetrical. The entrance bay is off-centre and has a round-arched doorway flanked by engaged Tuscan columns and a canted bay window above. The bay is topped by a high strapwork parapet with a semi-circular armourial panel. This panel has the coat of arms of the Malcolm family flanked by two stags.

To the right of the east elevation is a truncated single storey and attic, seven-bay stable range (the attic dormer windows no longer survive). In the re-entrant angle between the east elevation and the stable wing is a truncated three-storey octagonal clock tower. There is a similar two-storey truncated tower at the east end of the stable wing (both towers have lost their strapwork parapet and ogee roofs). The stable range has a shaped central gable above an archway.

The south elevation is six bays and symmetrical, with canted bays at each end. The west wing of the house is two stories with a single storey conservatory at the west end.

The rear elevations are plainer.

The interior was not accessed because of the condition of the building (2017). In the part of the interior which has been seen, the walls are back to the brick and stonework, with fragments of lath surviving and very little plaster. No surviving flooring was seen, including that at the ground floor which has collapsed into the basement.