Built after a fire in 1896, Grange House combines an Arts and Crafts villa plan with gables, dormers and tall stacks recalling seventeenth-century Scottish houses.
Quick facts
- Date
- 1896
- Architect / designer
- Designer and builder not recorded
- Type
- Arts and Crafts villa with Scottish seventeenth-century details
- Designation
- Listed building, Category B (LB6785)
- OS grid reference
- NS 04518 25945
Architecture and continuing use
Snecked rubble and ashlar dressings support an irregular two-storey and attic composition. Ball-finialled dormers, canted windows, crowstepped-looking gables and a tall L-plan wallhead stack concentrate interest across the elevations. A rear inscription records the house name and 1896 date; rubble walls continue the designed boundary.
Its story
The present house replaced a building destroyed by fire and carries the date 1896. Its scale and decorative treatment belong to Whiting Bay’s late nineteenth-century development as a desirable coastal settlement. It was historically recorded as a hotel, but the older survey evidence described residential use and current hospitality operation has not been verified.
Why it is included
It is one of the village’s strongest architectural expressions of resort-era villa building and shows how Scottish historical motifs entered domestic design.
What to notice
- The inscribed rear doorway, where visible lawfully.
- Ball-finialled dormers and prominent chimney stacks.
- Canted windows set against asymmetrical gables.
Reading the surroundings
Do not assume public entry from the historic word “Hotel”. View from lawful public ground and respect boundaries, residents and vehicles.
Timeline
- Before 1896 An earlier building occupied the site before being destroyed by fire.
- 1896 The present Arts and Crafts villa was completed and dated.
- 1995 Grange House and its boundary walls received Category B listing.
- 2013 The national record’s notes and references were updated.
What we know — and what remains uncertain
Neither architect nor current use is established by the checked sources. Historic hotel naming should not be read as a current business claim.
Sources & further reading
- Historic Environment Scotland: Grange House, Whiting Bay, LB6785 — Current designation status, statutory identity, official mapped point, date, fabric and significance.
- SCAPE Trust: Coastal Zone Assessment Survey, Kintyre and Arran — Building-specific survey evidence for late twentieth-century condition and reported use; it is historical evidence rather than proof of present occupation.
- Trove: Grange House — National collection entry for the designation identity, mapped location, related records and available archive material.
- North Ayrshire Council: LDP3 Evidence Report — Current council planning evidence for the island’s communities, services and settlement context.
Location
OS grid reference NS 04518 25945 · Location confidence: High for the current HES designation point; public text separately qualifies component extent, terrain and access. · Select the marker to open its satellite view in Google Maps. On desktop, drag Pegman (the yellow figure) onto a blue road. On mobile, turn on the Street View layer and tap a blue road. Other photo markers may be user-contributed.
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