Auchenheath, 90 Dundonald Road, Kilmarnock

Auchenheath, 90 Dundonald Road, Kilmarnock

A 2-storey house with partial attic and cellar, designed by James Hay in 1909 and occupying a corner plot. The building displays Arts and Crafts characteristics in its irregular massing and varied materials. The ground floor is harled and painted with polished ashlar dressings and bay windows; the first floor is clad in red tile hanging with plain tiles to the lower section and fish-scale detail above. Overhanging eaves with bargeboards to the gables complete the external treatment.

The principal (northwest) elevation forms an essentially 4-bay L-plan with a full-height tower set in the re-entrant angle. The third bay contains the entrance, accessed via three stone steps, with a surround featuring rusticated long and short quoins and a projecting arched canopy. A small narrow window sits to the left of the door, with a tripartite window above at first-floor level. The fourth bay incorporates part of a 5-light projecting bow window that encompasses the corner of the building, with a single window at first-floor level. The second bay projects with a gable and contains a 5-light canted stone bay window at ground floor and a tripartite window above. A stone tower occupies the re-entrant angle to the right, with narrow windows at each floor. The first bay has a single window with sloped eaves at first-floor level.

The southwest elevation is essentially 3-bay. The centre features an open-fronted verandah with an overhanging roof supported on a pair of painted stone columns; a central door leads to the hall with flanking side lights. Above, the first floor has a tripartite window with an inset balcony with painted turned railing. To the left, part of a 5-light projecting bow window encompasses the corner, with an adjacent window and a tripartite first-floor window; a small window rises to the gable head. To the right, a projecting rectangular bay window contains 4-light windows at both floors; the left return has paired lights to ground floor overlooking the verandah with a blind above; the right return has paired windows at both floors.

The southeast elevation has a later single-storey conservatory replacing a former gabled glass conservatory at ground-floor left, with a tripartite window to the right. The first floor contains a tripartite window to the right and a smaller window to the centre.

The northeast elevation shows a gabled end to the right with a central door and narrow flanking windows; the gable above has a pair of plain windows. The left return includes steps leading to a rear door, a small right-flank window, and bipartite and paired cellar windows below; the first floor has a window with a smaller left-flank window. To the left of this elevation, paired ground-floor windows sit left and centre with a full-height stack between; a hall window occupies the right side. The first floor contains a small window to the right of the stack and a large bipartite staircase window to the right.

Windows to the ground floor are timber sash and case with 6-pane upper sashes and plate glass lower sashes. The principal elevations at first-floor level have replacement multi-paned casement windows. The roof is piended with red tiles, matching terracotta ridge tiles, and overhanging eaves. Plain timber bargeboards feature angle and purlin finials. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods run down the downpipes, which are partially concealed within the angles of tower and bay windows. Harled and painted stacks with plain stone copes and terracotta cans rise from various points; some extend to roofline, while a full-height adjoined stack rises on the northeast elevation.

The interior features timber panelling to the entrance hall, half-landing, and landing. Most rooms have timber-panelled doors. Some fireplaces remain, and plaster cornicing decorates the principal rooms.

A harled and whitewashed boundary wall surrounds the property, punctuated by widely spaced raised rectangular sections and topped with moulded and channelled concrete copes. A pair of taller harled and whitewashed gate piers stands at the west angle of the wall, each decorated with painted squared shields to the outer face and surmounted by flat moulded and channelled concrete caps. A matching stepped wing wall flanks this pair. Later replacement wrought-iron gates have been installed.