Observation

Date 1999

Event ID 546000

Category Recording

Type Observation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/546000

NS 231 102 Assessment and architectural recording was undertaken during conservation works in June 1999.

Dolphin House. A structure of three principal phases, the original as a laundry in the manner and material of other Robert Adam-designed buildings at Culzean (c 1775-1800) and perhaps to a design by Adam himself, or perhaps by his clerk of works, Hugh Cairncross. The structure faced away from the beach (and the lordly bathing area), being lit on that side (NW) by a single Venetian window. The structure was originally symmetrical in general form - the central block of three bays being flanked by smaller wings of equal size. The original construction includes the incorporation of an earlier, bolection-moulded fire surround within the room in the NE wing. The arrangement of the fenestration of the central block, however, was not symmetrical and the principal entrance was off-set. This was perhaps recovered from demolished pre-Adam parts of the castle (early/mid-18th century). Additions were made to the NE flanking wing, being extended by 2m, and then abutted by a later 19th-century outbuilding. In the mid-20th century extensive modification of the structure occurred, with multiple windows inserted in the sea-facing elevation (cementitious surrounds modelled to mimic the originals) and various plastic repairs to external dressings elsewhere. Internally the structure was wholly reordered with, particularly, the insertion of a staircase and a first floor within the central block.

Bath House. Externally arranged as a gothic folly formed of substantial blocks of local whin with rustic windows of sandstone. Internally a concrete floor and ceiling structure were removed during conservation works, revealing the bedding for a sandstone flag floor and an internal arrangement consisting of a major ashlar-lined bathing tank and a much smaller stone-lined (?plunge) tank. Evidence of the original roof structure was also recorded.

Records were also made of other associated structures:

Two cisterns. On the sloping ground above the Dolphin House to the S. Provided water for both the laundry and the bath house; the entrances of each were subsequently cut down.

Changing House. A circular structure built of fine ashlar with an ogival roof.

Sea water pool. Stone-lined pool below high water mark.

Building platform. On the rising ground some 50m to the E of the Dolphin House. Rubble-built retaining wall some 0.5m high on the downslope side, cut into the upslope side. No structural remains visible above.