Drimsynie House, Lochgoilhead

Drimsynie House, Lochgoilhead

Drimsynie House was built in 1859-60 as a large castellated mansion of square plan for Ronald Livingstone, a Liverpool merchant. It replaces an earlier house that stood just to the south. The building is designed on a 2-storey plan with a basement, set on a sloping site with views toward Loch Goil to the south. A 3-storey entrance tower with hoodmoulded openings forms the focal point of the composition. The design is thought to be the work of James Smith, a Glasgow architect. The Clan Livingstone coat of arms and family motto are displayed on the pediment above the main door.

The western entrance front features a slightly advanced entrance tower accessed by steps leading to the principal floor. To the north of the tower, a single-storey section one room deep screens the service courtyard beyond. This open courtyard, bounded to the north and east by a battlemented screen wall, was originally accessed by carriages through a large pointed arched opening in the east wall, later blocked up, with only a pedestrian entry remaining in the north wall.

Rectangular windows, predominantly grouped in twos or threes, light the public rooms on the principal floor and provide excellent views of the loch. Smaller segmentally headed windows light the more private first-floor rooms. Castellated square corner turrets serve both aesthetic and practical purposes, enforcing the fortress-like character while concealing chimney stacks behind their parapets.

The interior is relatively unaltered and retains considerable original plasterwork, particularly in the public rooms, with wall borders and ornate cornicing and ceiling decoration. The original woodwork is largely extant, including door architraves and shutters embellished with a recurring carved four-petalled flower motif. Some marquetry and parquetry flooring is present, particularly in the hall. Several marble chimneypieces feature in the principal public rooms. Some first-floor rooms have been subdivided.

The exterior is roughcast with narrow painted stone margins and quoins; brick margins and quoins appear on some courtyard elevations. Windows are mainly single-pane timber sash and case. Rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and plastic. The roof is concealed by a castellated parapet.

The house sits at the heart of a late 20th-century caravan and chalet park largely built on the former garden grounds. In the 1970s, a large single-storey leisure complex was constructed directly adjoining the mansion house, wrapping around its south-east corner at basement level. Despite these 20th-century additions, Drimsynie House remains a good example of mid-19th-century cubic castellated composition and continues to make a positive architectural contribution to its prominent setting.