Ayr, 2 Castlehill Road, Market Inn

The Market Inn, located at 2 Castlehill Road in Ayr, is a public house built in the late 19th century. It is a two-storey building with an attic and features three bays. The exterior is constructed of red ashlar stone, polished on the entrance elevation and squared on the sides. The building has a base course and a banded ground floor topped with a mutuled cornice, as well as a main mutuled cornice. The first-floor window openings are adorned with double-lugged architraves.

On the northeast entrance elevation, there are round-arched keystoned entrances on the outer left and right, each with two-leaf timber doors topped by dentilled cornices and fanlights. The central section features a two-light window, and above, there is a three-light window at the first floor, along with a small-paned roundel window in the gablet at the attic and flanking two-light windows on the outer sides.

The northwest elevation is asymmetrical, showcasing a gabled bay on the outer left connected to a two-storey block with irregular fenestration. A three-bay block steps down to the outer right, featuring a gabled central bay.

The southwest elevation is mostly hidden by later additions but displays a gabled structure with central windows. The southeast elevation features a gabled bay on the outer right, adjacent to a two-storey block, and a three-bay block that steps down to the outer left, also with a gabled central bay. This side has irregular fenestration and door openings.

The windows throughout the building predominantly consist of four- and six-pane upper sashes made of timber sash and case and casement styles. The roof is slate with stone skews, moulded skewputts, and wallhead and gable corniced stacks with circular cans. The rainwater goods are made of cast iron.

Inside, the Market Inn retains an early 20th-century decorative scheme that is largely intact. Notable features include a timber horseshoe bar counter with a terrazzo spittoon at the base and integral water spouts, along with a timber gantry. Decorative timber and red glazed tile fireplaces, timber panelling, and a red and black tiled floor are present. The inner swing doors are made of timber and feature leaded and painted art nouveau glasswork, complemented by decorative cornice plasterwork. The upper room includes timber fireplaces.

Additionally, there is a spiked iron gate located to the left of the building.