Walls And Gatepiers, Gas Holder, Cottage, Including Gas House, Gas Works, Culzean Castle Estate

The gas works complex at Culzean Castle Estate, dating from around 1840, consists of an irregularly shaped walled enclosure on two levels. The site features an entrance to the west, a gas house to the southwest, the remains of a gas holder to the east, and a cottage on the upper level to the southeast. It is located by the shore next to the old harbour, east of Culzean Castle.

The gas house is a single-storey, rectangular building with a pitched roof, designed in an astylar classical style and now serves as a museum. It is constructed of random rubble with ashlar dressings. The northeast elevation has a pedimented gable featuring an escutcheon in the tympanum and an arched entrance. The west elevation includes a window with external timber shutters, while the east and south elevations are blind. There is a four-pane timber sash and case bipartite window with an iron columnar mullion, and panelled timber double doors with a fanlight. The roof is slate, and there is a tall tapering chimney stack made of mixed stock bricks set on an ashlar base. Inside, as seen in 2010, the gas house contains a single chamber displaying replica retorts and equipment, with a flagstone floor and painted rubble walls.

The cottage, which was formerly the gas works manager's house, is also a single-storey, three-bay structure in a castellated style. It features crowstep gables and corbelled roofless pepperpot corner turrets and is now a museum. The building is made of random rubble with tooled ashlar dressings and an ashlar base course. It has 12-pane timber sash and case windows and a vertically boarded timber door, topped by a pitched slate roof with a single ashlar stack on each gable. The interior, as seen in 2010, has a combed ceiling, plasterboard walls and ceiling, vertically boarded timber doors, and a flagstone floor, but no discernible original features remain.

The gas holder consists of a stone-lined cylindrical tank made of tooled ashlar, set into a paved podium, which served as the mounting for the gas holder.

The walls and gatepiers surrounding the complex are constructed of random rubble with saddleback coping on the west side and crenellation on the north side. The gate piers are square in plan, made of ashlar with flat pyramidal copes.