St Benedict's Convent, Maxwell Street, Dumfries

St Benedict’s Convent is a large Gothic complex built between 1881 and 1884, originally designed by Peter Paul Pugin, with later additions for girl boarders and school facilities by James Barbour. The layout is a U-plan, incorporating an enclosed garden.

The chapel, situated at the northwest, is a six-bay structure with transepts, and features an unfinished stepped lancet gable. The southeastern gable fronts a courtyard, with a bellcote above a rose window containing cusped circles. Buttressed flanks display two-light windows with simple quatrefoiled tracery. There are two side chapels adjoining the transept; one has a rose window and the other a small apse with a semi-prismatic glass roof. A gabled porch projects from the northwest bay. The northwest gable has three large, two and three-light pointed arched windows with reticulated tracery. The northeast flank presents five bays, with window head visible above a semi-octagonal side chapel in the second bay.

An L-plan conventual range, also by Peter Paul Pugin, adjoins the chapel. This range is two storeys high, with a basement and attic, and terminates at the southeast with double gables set at right angles to the main ridge on both fronts. The frontages are three storeys high with attic windows in the gable. The main entrance is on the northwest elevation, where the projecting chapel forms an L-plan forecourt. The gable end to the left features a two-light mullion and transomed arched window with cusped tracery and a small rose window above. A similar four-light window is positioned to the right of the door, with square-headed windows above it. Dormer windows are topped with arched gablets.

The long southwest and northeast facades have a similar design, featuring arched two-light windows on the ground floor and single windows on the first floor. The northeast facade has a central projecting gable with a square ground floor bay that rises to meet the floor, canted at the first floor, topped with an arched window. The southwest frontage is unbroken, with regular fenestration.

The south school building, added by James Barbour, is three storeys high with attics and features rose windows in the gable ends and longer gablets. A tower at the southeast corner incorporates two loopholes on each face at third floor level. The building is topped by a pierced, pinnacled parapet, with a steep-pitched pyramid slate roof featuring lead embellishments and a weather vane. Gable ends have single windows each side of mullion and transomed quadripartite and tripartite windows, along with small gabled oratory projections at ground floor level. The side elevations feature quadripartite windows on each floor below two large gablets, and single windows below smaller gablets.