Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

STRONE, DUNSELMA INCLUDING OUTBUILDING, BOUNDARY WALLS, GATES AND GATEPIERSLB5075

Status: Designated

Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Category
A
Group Category Details
100000020 - See Notes
Date Added
02/02/1988
Local Authority
Argyll And Bute
Planning Authority
Argyll And Bute
Parish
Dunoon And Kilmun
National Park
Loch Lomond And The Trossachs
NGR
NS 19203 80729
Coordinates
219203, 680729

Description

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

Dunselma was built in 1884-6 as a sailing lodge for James Coats Junior to the designs of architects Rennison and Scott. The house and associated buildings are the ultimate expression of the conspicuous wealth of late 19th century industrialists.

Dunselma, a roughly L-plan 3 to 4-storey house with a prominent 4-stage tower, is a catalogue of Baronial features. It is an excellent example of a late 19th century villa, deliberately prominent and remarkably extravagant, with a collection of good interior, exterior and ancillary features. Dunselma stands out above Strone point and is prominent from all sides, particularly when seen from Dunoon, dwarfing the rest of the buildings at Strone.

Dunselma is roughly L-plan, with two principal elevations. The entrance elevation to the W has a square-plan 4-stage tower at its centre, machicolated and crenellated, with a circular ogee-domed stair turret and a rectangular aediculed window. In the base of this is the main door between splayed balustrades: round-arched with a rope hood-mould. To the left of the tower, the house is 2-storey, with a corbelled corner turret. To the right is a crowstepped gable over a projecting corner bay. The S elevation faces over Loch Long and the Holy Loch. A massive crowstepped ashlar bay takes full advantage of the views, with a five-light canted mullioned and transomed window on the main floor and a tripartite window above. In the apex of the gable is a further aediculed window. The E elevation continues to take advantage of the views with a large mullioned and transomed window over a canted bay in the central crowstepped bay. Over the remainder of the exterior is a irregular collection of fenestration, interspersed with corbels, stepped corbel-tables, rope-mouldings and decorative rain-spouts.

Interior: there are many features of interest in the interior of Dunselma. The entrance hall has a mosaic floor, figurative stained glass depicting Terpsichore and the Spirits of Hospitality by J.J. Kier, shell alcoves and a scrumbled ceiling with a green man central boss. The main stair is of hardwood with amphora balusters and urn finials to the newels. The main stair window is of particular quality, probably also the work of Kier: Jacobean strapwork patterns, the names 3 of Coats' yachts and 3 explorers: Vasco Da Gama, Columbus and Sir Francis Drake. The main reception rooms have decorative plaster ceilings, timber and marble chimneypieces and panelled walls. The large billiard room is fully timber-boarded. In the tower is a groin-vaulted observation room with windows depicting Galileo, Copernicus and Urania (the muse of Astronomy).

Materials: painted harled rubble with sandstone dressings. Hardwood sash and case windows, glazed hardwood main door. Pitched slate roofs with stone ridges. Lead ogee dome, stone stacks and clay cans. Cast iron rainwater goods and decorative stone spouts.

Outbuilding: immediately to the NE of Dunselma against the boundary wall is a single-storey masonry outbuilding with an unusual cast iron canopy of exceptional quality. The verandah is composed of components from the foundry of W.MacFarlane and Co., including a foliate pediment and a frieze of 5-pointed stars.

Boundary Walls, Gates And Gatepiers: there are two entrances to Dunselma. At the shore road to the N of the Lodge there are square-plan ashlar gatepiers with later replacement gates. Along this entrance road, which wound up the hill to the house by a series of terraces there are stretches of wrought iron railings on a low ashlar-coped wall. The second entrance is immediately to the W of the house, through square ashlar gatepiers. Immediately to the N of the house on to the High Road is a high harled and ashlar-coped boundary wall. To the S of the house a series of stone steps descend to the former tennis court.

Statement of Special Interest

Work began on Dunselma in May 1884, but progress was relatively slow and the exterior stonework was eventually complete by February 1886 (info. courtesy of a local resident).

James Coats Junior (1841-1912) was the grandson of Sir James Coats, the Paisley cotton millionaire. He was the president of the Royal Clyde Yacht Club and is known to have owned 16 yachts. Coats' main house was Ferguslie in Paisley (demolished).

Dunselma later belonged to Walter Bergius (another keen sailor) of the Bergius Engine company, later the Kelvin company. The house was sold to the Scottish Youth Hostel Association in 1941 and remained a hostel until 1965. Since then it has had a succession of owners. The present owner (2004) is at present undertaking the conservation and restoration of the house. This has involved the replacement of some windows and restoration of interior features.

Little work by architects Rennison and Scott is known. It appears they worked mostly for the Coats family. J.A Rennison designed Carskiey House (1904-9) in a Scottish Vernacular idiom on the Mull of Kintyre for Kate Coats (Walker, 2000, 62). The only only other known house by the practice is Cartside House, Renfrew, of 1880.

The complex at Dunselma included the main house with lawns to the front incorporating a tennis court, the stables and staff accommodation on the High Road and the Lodge, Boathouse and a large palm house (since demolished) on the shore.

Formerly category B. B-Group with Dunselma Lodge, Dunselma stables and The Boathouse.

References

Bibliography

Ordnance Survey 2nd edition (c1898); Walker, F.A and Sinclair, F., North Clyde Estuary: An Illustrated Architectural Guide (1992), 137; Walker, F.A., Buildings of Scotland: Argyll and Bute (2000), 62, 472; Information Courtesy of the Owner and a local resident (2004). Information on Ironwork from D.Mitchell (2004), Sale Particulars (c1987).

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

Images

There are no images available for this record, you may want to check Canmore for images relating to STRONE, DUNSELMA INCLUDING OUTBUILDING, BOUNDARY WALLS, GATES AND GATEPIERS

There are no images available for this record.

Search Canmore

Printed: 28/03/2024 17:42