Carmelite Monastery, Helenslee Road, Dumbarton

The Carmelite Monastery, built in 1890, was designed by Burnet, Son & Campbell of Glasgow and constructed in the Arts & Crafts tradition, incorporating Scots Baronial details. This large, asymmetrical villa is set on a slope, with a basement raised at the south and west. It is built of stugged and snecked red ashlar with contrasting yellow ashlar dressings. Modern additions and alterations to the east wing have largely removed the original service quarters.

The north elevation features outer gabled ranges with a roof that sweeps over the ground floor. The east wing, approached through a high garden wall, has a cat-slide roof extending over a canted and swept-eaved porch. The fenestration is irregular, with mostly single or bipartite windows that have roll-moulding. A transomed four-light window and a swept-roofed dormer are found in the inner bay, while a cross window is situated in the left re-entrant angle, featuring strapwork decoration in the tympanum. At basement level, the building has curved angles to the gabled blocks, corbelled to form a square above the ground floor. Crowstepped gables, coped stacks, and red tile roofs complete the exterior. A conical-roofed, two-storey turret is corbelled at the southwest angle.

The south elevation has a series of transomed ground floor windows; an advanced gable at the right contains two windows beneath a canted and corbelled oriel. The west elevation has a bipartite window below a relieving arch, corbelled at the left, with strapwork decoration to the tympanum. A covered forestair is positioned at the left, leading to the ground floor, and a canted, corbelled, and margined oriel breaks the eaves above.

The interior has been significantly altered by partitioning undertaken by the Carmelites in the 1930s. The staircase features simple chamfered balusters. The chapel, which was formerly an L-shaped drawing room, retains three-quarter panelling, a Jacobean chimneypiece, and a coffered ceiling with consoles supporting beams.

A red fireclay ridging tile garden wall extends northwards from the porch. The garden is enclosed by rubble-built walls with ashlar coping, and is accessed via rendered square gatepiers.