Gatepiers And Railings, Cuilvona Including Boundary Walls, Loch Ard

Cuilvona is a large villa built in 1887 by P C Morrison, a builder, as his own home. It is situated on a landscaped rise above Loch Ard and is a distinctive building with a corner tower, exhibiting features typical of local villa architecture including half-timbered gables and a Gothic-detailed timber porch.

The principal (southwest) elevation, overlooking Loch Ard, has three distinct bays. The left bay features a canted corner bay with a finialled polygonal roof. The central bay is slightly advanced with a gabled bay and a canted bay window with a jettied half-timbered gable above. The right bay has a half-timbered gable with decorative bargeboards, supported on turned columns with pierced, pointed arched lintels. An architraved panel to the left of the centre bay, at first-floor level, displays 'erected PCM 1887 AD' carved in relief. To the right of the main section is a recessed, single-storey service wing with a half-timbered gable.

The rear (northeast) elevation is simpler, with the single-storey section to the left and the three-bay, two-storey section to the right, the outer bays of which have half-timbered gables. A tall, triple window at mid-floor level centres the rear elevation, providing light to the main staircase.

The southeast elevation displays double half-timbered gables and a central gable to the single-storey wing. The northwest elevation has a single half-timbered gable.

Inside, a timber and glazed door and screen, with cusped-arched openings, separates the outer vestibule and inner hall. Some original joinery and plasterwork remain, although some are above modern suspended ceilings. A timber chimneypiece with a shelved mantel is in the public room. The timber staircase has an Oregon pine herringbone pattern lining its underside.

The villa is constructed from random rubble with dressed sandstone dressings, margins, and quoins; the margins are chamfered with rolled stop-chamfers. It has plate glass timber sash and case windows and pitched roofs with graded slates. Wall head stacks are present on the front elevation, and gable-head stacks are on the southeast, northwest, and northeast elevations.

Defining the southeast-northwest boundary is a random rubble boundary wall. Flanking the entrance drive, these walls descend to low dwarf walls surmounted by Gothic-style cast iron railings. Convex sections of walls and railings curve inwards, flanked by square gatepiers with chamfered copes and wrought iron gates.