Dean Castle Dower House, Dean Castle Estate, Dean Road, Kilmarnock

This is a mid-19th century dower house, extended later, set within the Dean Castle Estate. It is built in a Jacobean-gothic style and takes the form of an L-plan with a square entrance tower. The structure is of coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, featuring plain skew gables with projecting, blocked skewputts, and projecting window sills.

The southwest (principal) elevation shows a projecting square tower with an arched entrance door, a plaque above it, and a hoodmould detail. Above the entrance is a narrow window. To the right of the tower is a recessed wing, originally two stories and two bays, with the ground floor left bay now blanked. A gable to the left of the tower has a tripartite window on the ground floor, a central window on the first floor with a blind quatrefoil detail above, and an ornate wrought-iron finial. A further gable to the left incorporates a two-story canted bay with blind cruciform arrowslits to the gablehead, surmounted by a square stone finial.

The northwest elevation is two stories and three bays, with a later central entrance door and window to the right. To the left is a two-story, three-light canted bay. The first floor has two regularly placed windows in the centre and right bay. A fire escape door leads from the first floor to the left return.

The northeast (rear) elevation features a projecting gable with paired windows on both floors. The right return has alternating doors and windows to four bays on the ground floor, with matching windows on the first floor. The rear of the main block has three bays on the ground floor and three regularly placed windows on the first floor.

The southeast elevation incorporates a stone lean-to to the left and a glazed lean-to to the right, which conceals the ground floor elevation. Four bays are placed asymmetrically on the first floor, and a carved plaque adorns the left return gablehead. A recessed, blind gable of the main house is to the left, with a stepped wall leading to a segmental arch and the rear of a single-story stone building with a stepped wallhead stack.

Windows throughout are timber sash and case windows, with 2 and 4 panes. The roof is piended and covered with grey slate, including fish-scale slates to the tower, which is topped with a ball finial and lightning conductor. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods are present. A stone gablehead stack with a projecting stone neck cope and plain cans is on the rear elevation. The principal elevation has tall yellow brick stacks – one gablehead to the right and one wallhead to the left – featuring projecting ashlar neck copes and ornate 19th century cans.

The interior includes an entrance hall with a fire surround and an L-plan timber staircase. Original doors, timber skirting boards, and some cornicing remain.