Cardross, Cardross Road, Cats Castle

1888. 2-storey, asymmetrical, rambling-plan Scots Baronial house on ground falling to S. Bull-faced grey sandstone, ashlar margins and dressings.

Battered base; string course; hoodmoulds; ashlar mullions and transoms and roll-moulded surrounds to principal windows; eaves moulding; crowstepped gables.

E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 3-bays asymmetrically disposed with lower

gabled garage block to outer right. Half-gabled and lean-to buttress block

advanced against outer left gable. Entrance in penultimate left bay reached

via curved steps; pierced, stepped balustrade, cast-iron grid infill, lower leanto buttress bay on deep base to outer left; feline sculpture behind crowsteps.

Depressed-arch door, moulded surround, 2-leaf boarded door, radiating

fanlight, hoodmould. Small window at ground right, transomed and mullioned window above, crowstepped gable over; feline sculpture above eaves moulding. Broad gable to outer right, bipartite window at ground, single window above, semicircle ventilation opening in gablehead. Single storey, crowstep gabled garage block to outer right, modern garage door.

S ELEVATION: 2-storey, 2-bay with 3-storey round tower bay to outer left.

3-stage round tower, deep battered base, ashlar vents; battlemented

corbelled bartizan in re-entrant angle to right; shaped parapet, balustraded

rising to shaped solid crenellated parapet; trefoil at centre, feline sculptures.

String course between ground, 1st floor, heavily moulded cornice between

2nd floor and upper stage; windows symmetrically disposed at each stage,

those at 1st floor smaller; bipartites at upper stage, balustrade rising to

crenellated portion at centre, pierced by trefoil; feline sculpture. Corbelled

bartizan to outer right, blind cruciform arrowslit. Bay to right, windows

disposed to left of bay; crenellated parapet, tripartite square dormer rising

behind; broad crowstepped gable to outer right, bipartite at ground, bipartite at 1st floor, string course stepped over window.

W ELEVATION: round tower to outer right; crowstepped gabled bay

abutting to left, capped by battlemented apex stack; windows asymmetrically disposed, bipartite at ground to left, relieving arch over small window above, window at centre of attic stage. Lower 2-bay block to left, narrow bay, windows symmetrically disposed; broader bay to outer left, bipartite ground, relieving arch over, bipartite at 1st floor, crowstepped gable breaking eaves over, plaque in gablehead. Single storey, gabled service bay to outer left, 2 windows symmetrically disposed, attic window at centre in gablehead, coped apex stack.

E ELEVATION: long single storey service block; broad gable to outer right,

apex stack. Boarded door, lettterbox fanlight to right, window to outer left,

narrow light in gablehead, tall apex stack. 3 bays to right, boarded door at

centre, window to right, narrow window, boarded door, letterbox fanlight to

left.

Timber plate glass sash and case windows. Grey slate roof, lead flashings;

tall, broad coped ridge, apex stacks, circular cans. Skewputts.

INTERIOR: not seen 1993.

F A Walker and F Sinclair NORTH CLYDE ESTUARY (1992), p57, A F

Jones CARDROSS - THE VILLAGE IN DAYS GONES BY (1985?).

The house was built by Robert Craig who was a lawyer and Sheriff Clerk in

Dumbarton. It was originally called Hazelwood.