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Summary

Description

Thomas Hamilton, 1830-2 (tower), John Mercer, 1886 (shops). 4-stage Tudor-Gothic tower with 2-storey, 4-bay Tudor-Jacobean extension to High Street and 2-storey, 5-bay extension to Mill Street. Polished ashlar.

SW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION, TOWER (No 176): four-centred open battered arches to SW, SE and NW elevations, 2-leaf timber door to NE elevation at 1st stage. Deep-splayed 4-light windows above dividing band course at pilaster buttressed 2nd stage; deep-splayed 3-light tracery windows with label-mould to SE, NW and NE elevations; canopied niche containing statue of Wallace to SW elevation; dividing corbelled band course. Corbelled clock panels with stepped labelmoulds to all elevations at 3rd stage; octagonal angle buttresses carried up to crenellated finials. Octagonal 4th stage rising from corbelled, crenellated parapet with pointed merlons; long louvred belfry openings; quatrefoil panels; crenellated parapet.

SW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION (Nos 172 and 174): modern shopfronts at ground, entrances to outer left and right; modern glazed door and fanlight to shop to left, shop window to right; 2-leaf glazed modern door to shop to right, shop window to left. Flanking pilasters to gabled bay to outer left rising to octagonal crenellated pinnacles; canted 3-light window; pointed merlon crenellation; Ayr Burgh Arms roundel to gablehead. 3 single windows to right; cornice; blocking course. Tower to outer right (see above).

SE (MILL STREET) ELEVATION: 5-bay, with tower to outer left (see above). Canted bay to left; deep-splayed pointed arch 3-light window at ground; string course; Y-tracery leaded window at 1st floor; single pointed arch windows flanking to canted bays; corbelled cornice; quatrefoil roundel to gablet; octagonal crenellated pinnacles. 4 bays to modern shopfront at ground to right (3 sets of doors to bay to outer right); 4 Y-tracery windows at 1st floor rising to form gablets; octagonal crenellated pinnacles flanking to outer left and right.

Plate glass timber sash and case windows to High Street addition, plate glass to Y-tracery windows to Mill Street, leaded tracery windows to 2nd stage of tower. Grey slate roof.

INTERIOR: (Tower) timber handrail to staircase; castellated newel post; decorative ceiling to principle meeting room; rubble walls to tower; clock machinery.

Statement of Special Interest

Nos 146-176 High Street were rebuilt on a new set-back street line following the Ayr Burgh Act (1885), which made provision for the widening of the High Street. Plaque by entrance reads "This tower commemorates Sir William Wallace 'Guardian of Scotland', through whose efforts the recovery of Scottish independence was begun with victory over the English at Stirling Bridge in 1297." 115ft in height, the tower is one of a series of Wallace monuments built throughout Scotland in the 19th century. Statue of Wallace, by James Thom, who executed a replica for Lord Gray's seat of Kinfauns Castle, Perth.

References

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