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Summary

Description

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

Finnart is a good example of an early-mid 19th century villa with fine later architectural details, many of which are executed in cast iron. It is also one of the earlier villas in Kilmun. It is of interest for its early date, classical design and Greek details and the survival of many interesting decorative features. Finnart is a T-plan symmetrical 3-bay single storey and dormer villa pitch-roofed villa with a large verandah to the side.

A house appears on this site as 'Lamond's Feu' on a 1839 map (Waterston). It is most likely that this smaller, simpler house of c1830 was upgraded later in the 19th century. The projecting square bays to the front and large, wide dormers all appear to be additions of the later 19th century. The house is deceptively large, with a substantial 2-storey wing extending N to the rear. The central 2-leaf timber door, flanked by cast iron Corinthian pilasters, is reached by stone steps with cast iron balusters. There are two wide tripartite dormers, with slated cheeks and piended roofs. The centres of these dormers are pedimented, with palmette finials to the apex. Between these is a round headed central dormer, also with a palmette finial and scrolls to the side, all of cast iron and from the foundry of Walter MacFarlane and Co. To the E side of the house is a steel and cast iron verandah, probably late 19th/early 20th century, which has since been filled in to form a porch. The verandah is particularly interesting as it is made from McFarlane and Co. bandstand components, including the columns, palmette drip frets and railings.

Interior: access to the interior was not possible during the course of the 2004 resurvey.

Materials: predominantly rubble, with sandstone to bays. Cast iron decoration to dormers. Grey slate roof, stone chimneys and polygonal clay cans. Stone skews. Timber sash and case windows; predominantly plate glass.

Ancillary Buildings And Boundary Walls: closer to the road and to the W of the house is a lodge and coach house in a semi-ruinous state (2004): a dormered 2-storey structure with a gabled porch to the West. In the South wall, facing the road, is a modern square-headed garage door. In the garden to the rear of the house is an octagonal timber garden house with a lead pagoda roof, probably early 20th century. Directly in front of the house is a small sundial on a fluted column. In the SE corner of the site are ruinous greenhouses and outbuildings. The house is surrounded by rubble boundary walls.

Statement of Special Interest

A list of feuars to the Benmore Estate gives the date of the first feu as 1830 and the owner as a Mrs Alston.

Although Kilmun is an early settlement, it remained a small village until the 1820s. From 1827 David Napier, a marine engineer, purchased land along the shore of Loch Long, built a pier, a hotel and several villas (Including the 'Tea Caddies'- also listed) at Kilmun and opened a new route from Glasgow to Inverary via Loch Eck. Although Finnart is outwith Napier's feu, the development of the site belongs to the start of this period of expansion, which led to a string of villas as far as Blairmore.

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