Loch Katrine Royal Cottage

Royal Cottage, situated in landscaped gardens in an isolated location just above the south bank of Loch Katrine, was built around 1857 to accommodate Queen Victoria when she visited the site to open the Loch Katrine water scheme. It is a single storey and attic rubble cottage with some Picturesque gothic detailing and distinctive stacks with grouped tall circular flues. The building is roughly T-shaped in plan with a long rear service wing and a shorter cross wing containing the principal rooms. The cottage also has several small outbuildings to the rear and is currently subdivided into three separate dwellings.

The 3-bay asymmetrical principal elevation faces north over the Loch, giving the public rooms the best view. The left bay is an advanced gable with a canted bay window to the ground floor. The centre bay has a small ashlar porch, the gabled roof of which is ornamented by a fretted bargeboard; within the pointed arched door opening is a 2-leaf timber panelled storm door with fanlight above. The right bay has a double window and a dormer to the roof. To the far right is a lower blank single storey section which may be a slightly later addition. The east elevation of the principal block is dominated by a large wall-end shouldered stack with a square blank panel with a moulded surround. The stack is flanked by a window to each side.

The long rear wing has a slightly lower ridge line than the principal block and has a near-symmetrical 4-bay west elevation with 4 gabled dormers and 2 additional door openings to the ground floor, one of which is blocked, and one to the centre with a timber-boarded door and 2-light fanlight. The east side of the rear wing has a small projecting block with a parallel ridge to the left and a cat-slide roofed section to the right.

The cottage is constructed of random rubble with tooled ashlar lintels and deep base course; large rubble quoins. Windows are timber sash and case, mostly 8-pane glazing, with 4-pane glazing to the ground floor of the principal block. Pitched roofs are laid with graded slates, with plain bargeboards and sparred overhanging eaves. There is one wall-end stack and one small wall-head stack to the east elevation of the principal block; one gable-head stack to the west gable of the principal block; and three ridge stacks to the rear wing; all stacks are coped ashlar with varying numbers of tall circular flues with circular cans. Rainwater goods are mostly cast-iron.

The interior includes rooms with timber-boarded ceilings to number 3. Access to numbers 2 and 3 was not gained during a resurvey in 2005.

Directly to the rear of the service wing is a rectangular-plan single storey pitched roofed outbuilding with several large openings, some of which have been enlarged. This was probably originally a coachhouse and stables, with a hayloft door to the east gable. Just to the west of the house is an L-plan single storey rubble building with two piended roofs, likely originally used as a dairy or laundry, and a small square-plan piend roofed rubble building.

A random rubble jetty with concrete walkway and decorative cast-iron railings and timber pier-head serves the site. The rectangular-plan gabled boathouse is constructed of random rubble with timber boarded gable head over the entrance and a grey slate roof.