Nursery, 42 Main Street, Kirkcowan

The site comprises a nursery garden complex with three irregularly shaped buildings of varying dates. All buildings are constructed of rubble and painted a uniform colour.

The principal range is an L-plan, two-storey structure. A lower range, dating to around 1800, forms a wing to the rear, originally houses that now serve as nursery outbuildings, running east-west. At the eastern end of the main range is a taller, mid-19th century L-plan house raised from an earlier single-storey cottage, facing the street.

The house has a painted ashlar (?) street elevation, featuring a base course and raised margins. The door is positioned slightly off-centre and has a letterbox fanlight. It is flanked by a bipartite window to the left and two single windows to the right. Canted, slate-hung dormers from the 19th century, with decorative finials, are present, and there are two widely spaced windows on the first floor. Blank gables return to the north and south, each with wallhead stacks. The rear block has a first-floor window to the slightly recessed north elevation. A flat-roofed, two-storey block sits in the re-entrant angle to the south (the courtyard elevation), adjoined by a lean-to stone porch, with further windows along the remaining wallpane. The windows are a mix of 12-pane and plate glass, set in sash and case windows. The roof is covered in rubberoid slates, with a rooflight to the porch. Gablehead stacks are present.

The nursery buildings, which are the former houses, have irregular openings, graded slates with rooflights, ridge and end stacks, and ridge ventilators. The rear elevation to the north is impressive, continuous with the house, largely blank except for a small ground floor window to the left and a window to each floor to the far right. The courtyard elevation to the south features a stone forestair leading to a door with a gabled dormerhead and plain railings. A further door is located toward the centre, with windows at ground level and small windows under the eaves. A sliding machinery door has been inserted to the left of the centre, within a lugged opening. An enlarged window, with industrial-type glazing, is situated to the outer left, above a lean-to greenhouse that clasps the corner and extends across the otherwise blank west gable of the range.

A single-storey, early 19th century cottage is located to the south of the principal range. It has four bays, with a door off-centre to the right on the north elevation, facing the courtyard; a window is positioned in each flanking bay. The south (rear) elevation is blank. Small windows are visible in the east gable and one to the right of a lean-to outbuilding in the west gable. The windows are sash and case with small panes. Slate roofing and coped gablehead stacks are present.

An office and outbuilding are situated to the southeast of the principal range, fronting the street. The office is gabled and includes a door flanked by a 12-pane window facing the street, with a letterbox fanlight above; the door is also flanked by a smaller four-pane window.