Ardencaple Hotel Including Former Stables, Rhu Road Lower, Rhu

Ardencaple Hotel Including Former Stables

This is an early 19th-century hotel of Classical design, comprising a 3-storey, 3-bay rectangular block with flanking single-storey advanced pedimented pavilions. The main building is finished in painted stucco with painted ashlar margins and dressings. Details include a base course, eaves cornice and band, quoin strips, and a 1st floor cill course. A balustraded parapet with urns crowns the structure, and the 1st floor windows are framed by Corinthian pilaster architraves.

The south-west entrance elevation presents a symmetrical 3-bay facade with the centre bay slightly advanced. A segmental-headed tripartite door with a blind fanlight (now painted 'Tea Room') marks the principal entrance. Above this is a tripartite window at 1st floor level and a smaller window directly under the eaves. The flanking bays each contain a single window in a recessed round-headed panel at ground level, a window at 1st floor, and a smaller window under the eaves. Advanced open-pedimented pavilions flank this elevation, featuring arched panels with keystones and blind windows with segmental details above. The left pavilion has a bipartite window in a round-headed recess.

The south-east elevation comprises a 4-bay single-storey and attic block with a recessed modern conservatory link joining the main hotel to the former stable range. A full-height round-arched entrance framed by Doric columns (with a modern truncated door) sits centrally, flanked by symmetrical bays containing ground and 1st floor windows with margined panels above and triangular dormerheads. To the outer right is a bay with a door and window at ground level and a window at the upper floor. The pedimented gable of the former stable projects to the right, featuring a recessed round-arched panel, string course, and a modern barred window at ground level. A glazed lean-to conservatory now links the main hotel to the modernised stable block. A cottage outbuilding range sits to the north-east.

The north-west elevation shows a 3-bay pavilion to the right with a later canted porch entrance incorporating a centre window and side-lights, and a boarded door to the left. A modern flat-roofed extension extends to the outer left, with symmetrically disposed 1st floor windows. A blank link wall runs to the left, and the pedimented gable of the former stable sits to the outer left with a recessed blind round-headed panel.

The windows throughout are plate glass sash and case, with 12-pane sash and case windows on the ground floor of the right pavilion. Replacement tilt and turn windows occupy the 2nd floor. The roof is finished in grey slate with piend and platform sections; ridge stacks are rendered and cope-topped.

The interior features a main stair hall with a narrow winding stair fitted with modern cast-iron balusters and a wooden handrail. A gently convex cabinet recess occurs at the half-landing. Much of the rest of the hotel interior has been modernised, with modern bars to left and right featuring exposed timber ceilings. The rear of the hotel is entirely modernised.

The former stable block is a rectangular-plan range aligned north-west to south-east, built in painted rubble with symmetrical gables. The south-east elevation displays a recessed round-headed panel with a modern window (the north-west is blank). The north-east elevation, rendered in cement with sandstone margins, comprises 5 bays. A segmental-headed coach arch at the centre is surmounted by a large window, with 2 bays to the left and 2 asymmetrical bays to the right. Window openings have been enlarged with replacement fixed-pane and top-hopper windows. The stable block is roofed in grey slate with ashlar coping to the skews.

The cottage outbuildings form a former L-plan cottage and outbuilding range, single-storey, in painted harled masonry, aligned north-west to south-east parallel to the stable block. The south-west elevation has 4 bays with blocked and altered openings, plus a lean-to projecting block to the outer left. The north-east elevation shows a blank expanse to the left and 5 asymmetrical bays to the right. The cottage is roofed in grey slate with corniced sandstone wallhead and ridge stacks; the north-west stack has a stepped concrete addition.

A rubble boundary wall with semi-circular coping bounds the hotel area on the Torwoodhill Road elevation, sweeping down to a low wall at the entrance. The wall curves inward toward the entrance and rounds the south-east side.