Couston Castle

Couston Castle is a 17th-century tower house, with substantial reconstruction work carried out in the 1980s under the direction of Ian Begg. It comprises a three-storey with attic L-plan tower house, a two-storey wing to the north, a walled garden to the south, and a two-storey garage at the southeast corner of the garden. The exterior is largely harled, with dressed and moulded stone openings.

The east elevation features an advanced gable to the left, with a ground floor window to the left and a large first-floor window to the right, alongside a narrower small window. A window to the second floor is set above the ground floor window, with two evenly spaced attic windows above. To the right, a setback wing features a moulded ground floor door surround with a small window to the left, a moulded blank panel above the door with a small window, and a second-floor window breaking the eaves, with an attic window above. A curved projecting stair tower sits at the re-entrant angle. An outshot adjoins the right side of the east elevation; a centrally positioned ground floor window is above by a breaking eaves window.

The north elevation has a stair tower with visible stairs at ground level and a moulded stone gun-loop to the right. Various windows are set between floors. Small square windows are situated on each floor to the left of the stair tower. An advanced north elevation to the right includes an attic window to the left. A two-storey wing adjoins the north elevations, featuring a ground and first-floor window to the right, with raggles (likely decorative timbers).

The west elevation displays irregular fenestration, with some ashlar window surrounds and small casement windows. A two-storey wing to the left has two stone openings, possibly original drainage channels now glazed (2002), a window to the left, with raggles to the far left, and a breaking eaves window to the centre-left.

The south elevation presents three ground floor windows, a moulded lugged doorpiece to the far right, two large rectangular windows to the first floor, and a small window to the far left. Three second-floor windows are present, with two narrow, horizontal slit windows beneath the eaves.

The castle has timber boarded doors with staggered nails and a variety of multi-paned casement and sash and case windows. A catslide roof covers the breaking eaves windows, and the overall roof is pitched grey slate, with crowstepped gables featuring beaked skewputts. Coped, rendered gable apex stacks are visible, without visible cans.

The interior is largely modern, including a concrete newel stair and a vaulted storage room. Some salvaged moulded stone is used in doorpieces, and original drainage channels are visible within the west wall of the kitchen in the north outshot.

The walled garden, enclosed by high rendered walls to the west, east, and south, includes a garage at the southeast corner. The garage is two-storey, rectangular in plan, with a large segmental arch to the ground and a small offset window above to the east. A crowstepped gabled breaking eaves window is located at the first floor to the south. It has a pitched grey slate roof, crowstepped gables with beaked skewputts, and a rendered coped gable apex stack to the east.