Ambitious restoration plans have been revealed for A-listed Knockderry Castle in Cove.
The 19th century castle was at the centre of a notorious legal wrangle which lasted for decades and saw Marian van Overwaele and her brother George Amil evicted in 2022.
In February this year it was bought by David Leavitt, the US prosecutor behind efforts to extradite US fugitive Nicholas Rossi, who with his wife Chelom has pledged to restore it.
Now they have applied to Argyll and Bute Council for planning permission and listed building consent for several changes to both the interior and exterior of the building.
Wooden sash windows will replace the uPVC ones installed previously, while several bathrooms are planned.
A heritage impact statement by architects and surveyors Gibson Lawson McKee says that change would be sensitively managed.
“The proposals offer considered alterations enabling its continued use as a private house fit for the 21st century,” it adds.
“Many of these alterations are in fact re- instatements of now lost features.
“The proposal outlined here has been designed to be a sensitive and appropriate response to the existing fabric and interiors, whilst making improvements that will bring the building up to modern standards of living.
“Much of the work being proposed is either an evidence-based re-instatement of original features or reversible.
“Opening up of walls is restricted to a small selection of locations and, equipped with sensitive detailing, offering an opportunity for enhanced circulation.
“We are endeavouring for a viable long-term solution and use of this neglected building and this proposal charts a way forward.”
A section of the west staircase would be re-introduced, with new doors on either side of a drawing room fireplace, while a 20-metre section of wall would be opened up to link a family kitchen with. dining space.
A rotten staircase on the north elevation would be replaced, while redundant toilets which date from when the house was used as a hotel would be removed and bookshelves would be fitted in the library, as was though to be the case previously.
The house was as designed by Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson in the 1850s, with baronial additions by William Leiper in 1890s.
The statement adds: “There are only a few areas in the building where opening up of masonry wall is proposed to form new doorways and this will have no impact to the external fabric of the building.
“These locations are outwith the Leiperian interiors and located on unadorned and unpanelled walls.
“Where new doors are being added, the detailing of these is to marry in with their respective rooms by matching other doors and details.
More details are available on the council’s website – the reference number is 23/00809/LIB
The heritage impact statement is here: document-22908813
Leave a Reply