Footbridge, Stroove, 38 Montgomerie Terrace, Skelmorlie

Footbridge, Stroove, 38 Montgomerie Terrace, Skelmorlie

A 2-storey villa with basement designed by John Honeyman in 1868 for his own use, set on a sloping site with an irregular plan and multiple gables. The practice of Keppie and Henderson added extensions between 1920 and 1922, and a late 20th-century roof extension was added to the south. The building is constructed of squared, snecked and stugged red sandstone with polished ashlar dressings, featuring a base course and string course (not continuous). Chamfered window margins and irregular fenestration appear across all elevations.

The east elevation, facing front, contains a timber-panelled front door in a roll-moulded architrave set to the right return of the central advanced gable, with two flat-roofed dormers above and three windows to the front of the gable itself. To the right of this is a recessed section with a 4-light transomed and mullioned hall window at ground level featuring cusped pointed-arches to the upper lights, and a hoodmoulded window above with a dormer gable. An advanced outer right gable displays a 3-light canted bay window at ground with dentilled detailing below the string course and a blind balustrade above, plus a hoodmoulded window above. An outer left gable contains two front windows and a timber-boarded back door recessed to its right.

The north elevation shows a 2-storey canted bay window to the left gable with dentilled cornice below the string course and piended fish-scale slated roof. Irregular fenestration to the right includes two doors at basement level and a dormed window.

The west or garden elevation comprises seven bays with advanced and recessed sections. An advanced 1920s rendered tower occupies the centre, featuring a large transomed and mullioned window at first floor with bracketed, open segmental pediment and bracketed cill, a ground-floor window, and a non-traditional uPVC door to its left return with long and short margins. A recessed gable to the left displays hoodmoulded windows. An advanced outer left gable contains a pointed-arch window at ground level with two windows above separated by a central corbelled buttress that supports a canted oriel window at top floor. A gabled bay to the right of centre features a 2-storey canted bay window. The lower service wing to the right has a trefoilled-headed window at first floor under a gabled dormerhead, with a single-storey section to the outer right.

The south elevation contains three bays. A central gable displays a 3-light window at ground with dropped cill to the centre light and cusped window heads, plus a window to the gable apex. An advanced right gable has rounded corners at ground that corbel to square at first floor. A lower gabled wing projects to the left with a single-storey outhouse adjoining to the south.

Deep eaves and decorative bargeboards ornament all gables. Fenestration consists predominantly of plate glass to timber sash-and-case windows, with some 4-pane and 6-pane glazing to upper sashes; some non-traditional uPVC windows have been introduced. The roof is graded grey slate.

Interior features include geometric stained glass to the upper lights of the hall window. The hall and principal ground-floor room are joined to form a large reception room, containing a roll-moulded stone chimneypiece, timber panelling to dado level, decorative cornicing, and a compartmented ceiling with decorative plasterwork. A panelled doorpiece in the hall contains a 2-leaf timber panelled door. The dining room possesses a compartmented ceiling, decorative cornicing, and picture rail. Other rooms retain some cornicing and timber-panelled interior doors. The back stair features turned timber balusters and a stop-chamfered newel post.

Associated structures include a round-arched random rubble bridge to the drive with crenellated parapet, stepped waterfalls along the Halket Burn, a flat-coped random rubble boundary wall, sandstone gatepiers, and sandstone garden steps to the north of the house.