Cardross Road, Cats Castle

Cardross Road, Cats Castle

A house of 1888, built in the Scots Baronial style. It is a 2-storey structure with an attic, asymmetrically planned and featuring round towers, set on ground that slopes away to the south. The walls are constructed of bull-faced grey sandstone with ashlar margins and dressings. The base is battered, with a string course and hoodmoulds enriching the principal elevation. The main windows are mullion-and-transom with roll-moulded surrounds. Other decorative elements include an eaves moulding and crowstepped gables.

The entrance elevation faces east and comprises 3 bays disposed asymmetrically, with a lower gabled garage block to the outer right. A half-gabled and lean-to buttress block is advanced against the outer left gable. The entrance is reached via curved steps with a pierced, stepped balustrade having cast-iron grid infill. A feline sculpture sits behind the crowsteps. The entrance door itself is depressed-arch in form with a moulded surround, 2-leaf boarded leaves, a radiating fanlight, and a hoodmould. A small ground-floor window sits to the right, with a transomed and mullioned window above and a crowstepped gable over, topped by another feline sculpture. A broad gable rises to the outer right with a bipartite window at ground level and a single window above; a semicircular ventilation opening pierces the gablehead. A single-storey crowstep-gabled garage block stands to the outer right with a modern garage door.

The south elevation is 2-storey and 2-bay with a 3-storey round tower bay to the outer left. The tower is 3-staged with a deep battered base, ashlar vents, and a battlemented corbelled bartizan set in the re-entrant angle to the right. A shaped parapet rises to a crenellated form, centred by a trefoil and flanked by feline sculptures. A string course marks the line between ground and first floor, and a heavily moulded cornice sits between the second floor and upper stage. Windows are symmetrically disposed at each level, those at first floor being smaller; bipartite windows occupy the upper stage, with a balustrade rising to a crenellated portion at the centre, pierced by a trefoil and marked by a feline sculpture. A corbelled bartizan projects to the outer right, pierced by a blind cruciform arrowslit. The bay to the right has windows disposed to its left; it carries a crenellated parapet with a tripartite square dormer rising behind and a broad crowstepped gable to the outer right. This gable is lit by bipartite windows at both ground and first-floor levels, with the string course stepped over the window openings.

The west elevation features a round tower to the outer right. A crowstepped gabled bay abuts to the left, capped by a battlemented apex stack. Windows are asymmetrically disposed: a bipartite at ground level to the left, a relieving arch spanning a small window above, and a window at the centre of the attic stage. To the left stands a lower 2-bay block comprising a narrow bay with symmetrically disposed windows, and a broader bay to the outer left with a bipartite ground window, relieving arch over, and a bipartite first-floor window. A crowstepped gable breaks the eaves over this section, with a plaque in the gablehead. A single-storey gabled service bay sits to the outer left, lit by 2 symmetrically disposed windows with an attic window at the centre of the gablehead, and coped by an apex stack.

The east elevation comprises a long single-storey service block with a broad gable to the outer right and an apex stack. A boarded door with a letterbox fanlight sits to the right, with a window to the outer left and a narrow light in the gablehead. A tall apex stack rises above. To the right are 3 bays: a boarded door at the centre with a window to its right, a narrow window, a boarded door, and a letterbox fanlight to the left.

Windows throughout are timber plate glass sash and case. The roof is of grey slate with lead flashings, a tall broad coped ridge, apex stacks, and circular cans. Skewputts complete the detailing.

The interior was not inspected at the time of listing (1993).