Taynish, 4 Barmill Road, Beith

Taynish, 4 Barmill Road, Beith

Built around 1830 with minor alterations to the rear and interior circa 1930, Taynish is a two-storey, three-bay L-plan classical villa with Grecian details. The house stands in a prominent position on Knockbuckle Hill in the Townhead area of Beith, adjacent to the High Church and overlooking the main approach route from Barrmill to the south-east.

The front elevation is constructed in grey sandstone ashlar and displays considerable architectural refinement. Outer pilasters support an entablature, while the centrepiece features a portico with Doric columns and a block pediment with acroteria. The entrance itself is pilastered, with a two-leaf timber panelled outer door fitted with two original cast-iron lions' head door knockers. Ground floor windows have moulded architraves and rosettes; block pedimented cornices with acroteria sit above. First floor windows have lugged architraves. The gables and rear elevation are harled with sandstone margins.

A single-storey stone-built outbuilding adjoins the house to the right, featuring a key-blocked segmental arch and timber boarded door to the left; this has been converted to a garage. The rear elevation incorporates a modern timber lean-to at ground level in the re-entrant angle, with a stair window above. A tripartite window of 1930s date on the ground floor left incorporates a central section as a door; a single window sits above. The projecting wing to the right has two-over-two windows.

Throughout the house, timber sash and case windows retain original twelve-pane glazing, except for one window to the rear which has been replaced with two panes. The roof is covered in grey-green slate with a stone ridge, flat skews, and corniced end stacks and wallhead stack to the rear; all chimney cans are replacements. Original cast-iron rainwater goods remain to the front elevation.

The boundary treatment comprises original cast-iron railings to the front with ashlar gatepiers. Random rubble walls run along the right side of the house (north-south) and to the rear, with roughly hewn coping stones.

The interior retains a classical decorative scheme with some Art Deco intervention dating from the 1930s. The hall features herring-bone parquet flooring and a curving cantilevered stair with a cast-iron balustrade and mahogany handrail, boxed off below to form a cupboard; a further small stair leads off at the half-landing to the rear wing. The former dining room on the ground floor right contains an original black slate Doric chimneypiece with paired pilasters, reeded frieze, plain corner roundels and marble slip. This has been sympathetically extended to form a broader Art Deco surround in the 1930s, flanked by Art Deco niches with stylised Grecian details. Timber panelled window embrasures with working shutters and moulded architraves are original to the room, as is the plain moulded cornice. The former drawing room on the first floor right displays a moulded cornice with a band of thistles, along with panelled doors and window embrasures with moulded Grecian architraves.

Taynish represents a typical two-storey, three-bay villa of the period, distinguished by its impressive ashlar frontage and highly fashionable Grecian detailing. The house is essentially one room deep with a rear wing, making the interior smaller than its external appearance suggests, yet the precise classical proportions compensate. The carefully cut stonework, likely quarried locally, would have been expensive, particularly the larger blocks used for the pedimented porch.

Similar contemporary examples exist in Beith, including 12 The Strand and 44, 62, 64, 72 and 76 Eglinton Street, all displaying characteristic outer pilasters and varying degrees of Grecian detailing. The style can be linked with the work of David Hamilton (1768-1843), whose notable contemporary works in Ayrshire include Ladyland House, Kilbirnie (circa 1820) and Swindridgemuir, Dalry (1815, probably by Hamilton).

The house is well preserved and benefited from a careful programme of grant-aided repair carried out by the owners and Historic Scotland in 2001. This work included removal of paint from rear window margins, stonework and harling repairs, replacement of sash windows to the front to match originals, and replacement of uPVC rainwater goods with cast-iron alongside repair of existing cast-iron goods. The mild Art Deco alterations of the 1930s complement the classical designs without detracting from original period features. Title deeds dating from 1829 confirm the house's date, and it is marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858.