Lodge, Ross Priory

This is a lodge, built around 1810 by J Gillespie Graham, and later expanded. Originally a single-story, rectangular building in the Gothic style, it now includes a rear wing and side additions. The lodge is constructed from ashlar stone with ashlar details; later additions are rendered. A base course and decorative hoodmoulds are present.

The south-west elevation features a central, open-sided porch with a piend roof and four-centred arches supported by clustered colonnettes. It has a painted studded door. Flanking the porch are pointed arch windows with hoodmoulds. A modern pebble-dashed extension is located to the outer right. A window is centrally positioned on the north-west elevation. Later additions have been made to the rear and north-east.

The lodge has four-pane, cusped-headed windows and a grey slate roof with lead flashings. It features rendered, coped ridge stacks with circular cans.

The boundary wall is constructed from squared sandstone with saddleback coping. Circular column gatepiers with depressed pyramidal caps stand at the vehicular and flanking pedestrian gates. The main columns of the gatepiers have been completely replaced; the shafts of the pedestrian column have also been replaced. Cast-iron hood railings, replacements made in 1995, run along the boundary.

The lodge serves as the entrance building for Ross Priory. The priory itself, along with the stables and Buchanan graveyard, are included as separate listed buildings. References to the lodge and its setting can be found in F A Walker and F Sinclair’s North Clyde Estuary (1992), and in An Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, Vol 2.