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Summary

Description

Former distillery complex, dating from 1868, comprising 3-storey 15 x 4-bay former Duty Free warehouse with kiln to NW end, 2-storey 3-bay office projecting to NE at SE end giving L-plan, former cooperage buildings lining NE side of cobbled yard. Random rubble walls with stugged and droved ashlar dressings. Margined windows with projecting cills to Saddell Street elevation.

OFFICE: 2-storey 3-bay asymmetrical elevation to Saddell Street. 3-centre arched entrance pend at ground floor left bay of office with incised lettering in voussoirs reading "BENMORE DISTILLERY". Paired doors at centre of E pend wall, 4-panel at right with fanlight above, 4-pane timber sash and case window to outer right, plate glass timber sash and case window to outer left.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: 3-bay elevation with pend at ground floor bay to right, stone dog-leg stair with cast-iron balustrade accessing 1st floor at bay to left. Gabled vertically-boarded timber addition supported on steel frame, projecting at 1st floor centre.

NE ELEVATION: blank harled gable end.

Timber sash and case windows at ground floor, 12-pane to Saddell Street, plate glass and 10-pane to pend and rear elevations, modern glazing at 1st floor openings. Grey slate roof with cast-iron downpipes and profiled gutters.

PRINCIPAL WAREHOUSE AND KILN: warehouse range oriented NW-SE with square plan kiln at N end.

SE (SADDELL STREET) ELEVATION: 3-storey 4-bay regularly fenestrated end elevation of warehouse. Margined windows with projecting cills. Ventilators with iron bars over ground floor windows. Door at ground floor right bay.

NE (COURTYARD) ELEVATION: 15 regularly spaced bays. 2-leaf vertically-boarded timber doors with iron hinges at ground floor, to outer left. 2nd bay, iron bars at ground floor window. Slit window at ground floor between 3rd and 4th bays. Modern opening at ground floor of 5th bay. Vertically-boarded timber sliding door with 4-pane upper at ground floor of 6th bay. 3-pane fixed-light at ground floor of 7th bay. Rubble infilled opening at ground floor of 10th and 11th bays, latter with vertically-boarded timber door at 1st floor accessed by open timber stair. 2-leaf vertically-boarded timber doors at ground and 1st floors of 12th bay. Kiln elevation at 3 bays to outer right; modern opening centred at ground floor, brick infill and iron bars at 2nd floor.

NW ELEVATION: modern brick elevation with large openings at ground floor.

SW ELEVATION: 3-bay kiln elevation at outer left, windows at 2nd floor only with timber infill, some iron bars remaining. Elevation to right regularly fenestrated with 2 and 3-pane timber windows at 1st and 2nd floors.

Grey slate roofs, M-roof to warehouse, piended to Saddell Street, piended pyramidal roof to kiln (lantern removed), cast-iron downpipes.

INTERIOR: concrete covered 1st floor, 2nd floor removed. Some cast- iron columns and timber beams surviving at centre. Cement rendered walls, sloping cills to windows and open timber roof construction.

COOPERAGE: range of 2 adjoining 2-storey buildings of rectangular plan lining NE side of yard. S building with modern fenestration and harled finish. N building of random rubble with stugged sandstone dressings, large modern opening to left of centre, 2-pane fixed-lights at ground and 1st floor of bay to left, rubble-infilled door at ground floor and large modern 4-pane fixed-light at 1st floor of bay to right. Blank bay to outer left, paired doors with concrete margins at bay to outer right with 2-pane fixed-light over left door. Grey slate piended roofs with cast-iron gutters and downpipes.

BOUNDARY WALL: random rubble walls of former warehouses to NW of yard, 6-bay wall to left with regularly spaced brick-infilled windows at

1st floor. Wall to right with large modern opening at outer right,

4 openings to left including brick infilled windows at right and doors at left.

Statement of Special Interest

Benmore was one of the later distilleries to be built in Campbeltown. It was built by the distilling and blending group Bulloch Lade, and was possibly the first to put a pagoda roof on its malt kiln (now removed). Barnard describes the distillery after his visit in the late 19th century saying: "it was the first of the three new Distilleries in Campbeltown, and its outside appearance resembles a public building rather than a manufactory of "Barley Bree." The edifice, which includes a Manager?s house on the right hand side of the gateway, consists of one square block of buildings erected round a handsome paved court-yard; the whole covering upward of two acres of ground, entirely enclosed. As we pass through the entrance gates a handsome chimney stack comes into view, recently built to replace one blown down some time since in a gale of wind; it is a fine chimney, quite an ornament to the place, and rears its head far above its fellows". Acquired by Benmore Distilleries Ltd in 1920, operations ceased in 1929 and it was bought by the Craig family for use as the depot for West Coast Motor Services in 1935. It is still owned by the family and remains one of the most complete of the redundant distilleries in Campbeltown.

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