Tower, Stable, Ardenvhor, Gareloch Road, Rhu

This is a stable block with a tower, built in 1858 with later 19th-century additions, situated on the shore of the loch near Rhu. The stable block is a single storey and arranged in a U-shape, with an octagonal, Scottish 17th-century style tower linked to it by a sandstone balustrade. The building is constructed from stugged, squared and snecked sandstone with polished sandstone margins and dressings. Key features include a base course, chamfered reveals, crowstepped gables, an eaves band, and pedimented dormerheads with ball finials.

The south elevation presents a U-plan design featuring a square-setted courtyard area. The centre block has four segmental cart arches; the arch to the left has been blocked to create a window. To the right is a single-storey and attic wing incorporating a two-stage, circular stair tower entrance. A boarded door is centrally located on the tower, with a narrow window above it and further narrow windows to either side. To the left, two bays feature dormerheaded windows, with a hoist door over a window at ground level in the penultimate bay. An outer right bay has a boarded, two-leaf door at ground level, symmetrically disposed windows at the right gable, and strapwork above the first-floor window. A single-storey wing on the left has two windows flanking a two-leaf door with a narrow plate glass fanlight.

The west elevation is five bays wide, with windows of alternating widths and a large, tripartite timber dormer to the outer right. A balustrade extends from the west wall to the octagonal tower located to the west of the stables.

The north elevation displays a two-storey gable to the outer left, with symmetrically disposed windows, and a blank rear wall with a lower gable to the outer right, also with symmetrically disposed windows and a narrow window at the gablehead.

The east elevation has two symmetrically disposed dormerheaded windows to the outer left and right, with circular ventilation holes positioned in line below the dormerheads, and a ground-floor window situated off-centre to the left. The building features eight-pane and later plate glass sash and case windows, some of which are blocked, along with roof lights. The roof is grey slate, with corniced sandstone apex stacks.

The tower is a later 19th-century addition, an octagonal three-stage structure with a parapet and a timber-boarded upper stage. It is connected to the stables to the east by a sandstone balustrade resting on a rubble base. The tower’s construction mirrors that of the stable block, utilising stugged, squared and snecked sandstone and polished sandstone dressings. A door on the south face provides access to the loch shore, while narrow, blind windows are present on the ground and first floors of each face. A plain parapet with saddleback coping on polished sandstone moulding tops the tower. An octagonal boarded structure within the parapet is accessed via a good cast-iron stair with patera detailing and Corinthian colonettes, running along the line of the balustraded wall. A pyramidal asphalt roof with cast iron brackets, wooden ribs, and a cast iron finial completes the tower.

Good cast iron mace head railings are found on top of the shore boundary wall. To the east of the stable block, a dilapidated lean-to greenhouse abuts a high rubble wall. A pair of ashlar gatepiers with shouldered, stacked caps and ball finials support ornate two-leaf cast-iron gates with fleur-de-lis detailing at the centre, set within a rubble wall with ashlar saddleback coping.