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Bute, Rothesay, Ascog, Ascog House

Garage (20th Century), Garden Wall (19th Century), Lairds House (17th Century), Outbuilding (19th Century)

Site Name Bute, Rothesay, Ascog, Ascog House

Classification Garage (20th Century), Garden Wall (19th Century), Lairds House (17th Century), Outbuilding (19th Century)

Canmore ID 40725

Site Number NS16SW 6

NGR NS 10452 63039

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/40725

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Administrative Areas

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish Kingarth
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Buteshire

Archaeology Notes

NS16SW 6 10451 63035.

(NS 1045 6303) Ascog House is a tall, early 17th century house, now divided into flats. The building has been much altered and added to both in the late 17th century and later, but it appears to have been originally an L-shaaped structure of main block of two storeys and an attic, lying N-S with a stair-tower projecting E and rising a storey higher, to end in a gabled watch- chamber. One of the altered dormers of the E front is dated 1678, but obviously the original building is older than this.

N Tranter 1970

Ascog House, name confirmed,has modern additions on its N and W sides and is as described by the previous authority. The dated lintel in the E wall is clearly visible.

Visited by OS (BS) 22 October 1976

NB LBLP Project 10/2003 / HS Listing - This building is today owned by the landmark trust and rented out, as a single property, for holiday accommodation. Though no building appears on the current landline series, there is internet/photographic evidence that the building is still in it's reported location. Upon acquisition by the Trust, the house was engulfed by Victorian additions (see collection). Aiming to restore the original proportions, these additions were removed in the late 20th century, leaving the main crowstepped block dated 1678 and a separate Edwardian stair tower in which the Trust formed another bedroom. Refurbishment and conversion has been sympathetic and architectural interest remains - note the crowstepped skews, finialed dormers, dated tympanums, polished sandstone dressings and relatively intact interior. The paths and terraces to the E of the main block are said to be the remains of a late Victorian formal garden, designed by Edward La Trobe Bateman (1816-1897) - a book illuminator, interior decorator and landscape artist who was also responsible for the gardens at Ascog Hall.

Ascog House comprises a 17th century country house that was re-built in 1678, according to a stone set in the E wall, above the second floor windows. The house has been recently renovated and is owned by the Landmark Trust. The tower house lies immediately to the N of the house. Both houses and the adjacent Ascog Lodge (see NS16SW 6.02) lie within the remains of the former designed landscape, as depicted on the 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map (Buteshire 1869, sheet CCIV).

Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH) 20 May 2009.

Architecture Notes

NS16SW 6.00 1045 6303 Ascog House

NS16SW 6.01 10643 63371 Pink Lodge

NS16SW 6.02 10447 63147 Ascog Lodge

Activities

Characterisation (11 May 2010)

This site falls within the Ascog Area of Townscape Character which was defined as part of the Rothesay Urban Survey Project, 2010. The text below relates to the whole area.

Historical Development and Topography

The largely linear, dispersed settlement of Ascog lies along the main coastal road out of Rothesay. The earliest remaining evidence of settlement here is Ascog House, a typical late 17th century laird’s house dating from 1678, the Ascog Estate originally being part of the Mount Stuart holdings. The remains of an 18th century salt pan survive in Ascog Bay, though there is some doubt whether it actually went into production.

Development in the area is restricted to the coastal strip, with the rocky Hill of Ascog preventing the settlement spreading further inland. The settlement mostly dates from mid- to late 19th century, when it became a popular destination for a number of prominent Glasgow industrialists and merchants: civil engineer, Robert Thom (Meikle Ascog, c.1840), Alexander Bannatyne Stewart, Convenor of Bute and prominent in the Glasgow Merchant City (Ascog Hall and Fernery, c.1844-70), shipbuilder ‘Mr Ferguson’ (Millbank House, 1825-63) and Mr Thomas Croil, wealthy West India Merchant (Balmory House, 1861). As a result, most of the properties are large detached Victorian houses set in fairly extensive grounds. The Church, designed by James Hamilton and built in 1842-3 on the little promontory beside the former salt pan, has a three-stage Italianate belfry at the rear, which adds interest to what is essentially a fairly plain and simple structure. This was the first permanent church building of the newly formed Free Church of Scotland to be built in Scotland.

Other significant buildings include the former Agnes Patrick Home and adjacent Stevenson School, which were established in 1900 by Bute philanthropist Agnes Patrick to provide a fortnight’s ‘fresh-air’ holiday for under-privileged children from Glasgow. Girls were housed in the Agnes Patrick Home (now Chandlers’ Hotel) and boys in the Stevenson. The majority of the other buildings in Ascog are later examples of the Victorian tourist trade which saw the huge expansion of Rothesay town to the extremities of Port Bannatyne in the north and Ascog in the south by industrialists and merchants from the mainland wishing to have a home from home in Rothesay.

There has been little further development in this area since the decline of the tourist trade, with just a few late 20th and early 21st century houses built within the grounds of the former mansions. There are just a handful of houses built on the shore side of the main road in the Ascog Area of Townscape Character, which is unusual for Rothesay, where almost all of the development is on the landward side of the coastal road from Port Bannatyne to Ascog.

Present Character

As suggested above, there has been little change in the overall layout and character of the Ascog Area of Townscape Character since the early 20th century. The area retains its semi-rural character due to the dispersed, relatively unplanned layout.

A mix of building styles still exists with Ascog House providing a fine example of a late 17th century laird’s house, particularly since its restoration, along with Meikle Ascog (Robert Thom, c.1840), by The Landmark Trust in the 1990s. Elements of the Scottish vernacular building tradition exist with the crowstepped gables and the whitewashed rubble which has been reinstated.

Building styles elsewhere in Ascog Area of Townscape Character are, on the whole, typical stone-built Victorian villas, though the Agnes Patrick Home (now Chandlers Hotel) is of mock half-timbered ‘English’ style, which can be seen elsewhere in Rothesay in the cluster of six houses by William Hunter on Ministers Brae in the East Bay and Serpentine Area of Townscape Character.

Modern development has kept to the general proportions of existing development, being large detached houses set in large garden plots. This has usually meant a reduction in plot size for the original houses, but still retains the open, low density character of the Ascog Area of Townscape Character.

Information from RCAHMS (LK), 11th May 2010

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