Glengyle

Glengyle is an 18th-century house, likely incorporating earlier fabric, with later alterations and additions. It is a 2-storey and attic, 3-bay house with crowstepped gables and dormerheads, accompanied by a 2-storey, piend-roofed wing to the west and a further 2-storey gabled wing adjoining at the northwest corner. The house holds historical significance as the birthplace of Rob Roy MacGregor, and it has been referenced in 19th-century Romantic literature.

At its core is an 18th-century, 2-storey, 3-bay symmetrical house. Following the purchase of the Glengyle Estate by Glasgow Corporation in 1918, the house underwent alterations including the insertion of bipartite windows on the ground floor, the addition of a crenellated entrance porch, and crowsteps to the principal gables and dormerheads. The porch obscures a bolection-moulded doorpiece with two datestones above it. One datestone appears to have been altered from 1764 and is inscribed with “J McG JB” and dated 1704; the other is dated 1728 and inscribed with “MH”. The rear elevation has irregular window placement, including two eye-shaped windows near ground level, reminiscent of gunloops. A principal wing may have been added in the earlier 19th century, though its precise date is difficult to confirm due to extensive recasting in the early 20th century.

After acquisition by the Corporation, the interior was subdivided into three separate dwellings for workers, each with its own staircase. The interior was significantly altered during the 20th century, and access was not possible at the time of a site visit in 2005.

The house is constructed with white painted roughcast walls, with red painted margins to the openings and corners. It has 20th-century timber sash and case windows with six panes at the top and plate glass below, and decorative tessellated glazing to the porch. The roof is covered in grey slate. Roughcast stacks are topped with a variety of cans (square).

Glengyle occupies a wedge-shaped site, tapering to the east, and is bounded to the north and south by random rubble walls. The formal entrance is located at the eastern extent of the site and is marked by circular stone gatepiers with domed caps and wrought iron, two-leaf gates. Informal crenellation adorns flanking walls.