M279 Wilmar, Skelmorlie

This detached house in the affluent commuter enclave of Skelmorlie looks west over the Firth of Clyde to Bute. The name is a conflation of the first names of William and Margaret Cunningham Rankin, the couple for whom the house was built. The front is framed by broad bay windows, with a simple veranda recessed between. It was divided into two dwellings c. 1979, but much high-quality joinery survives inside. The original hall, N., has a screen of three round arches in front of the stairs, with richly carved capitals; the billiard room, S., has a chimneypiece with a pair of unfluted Roman Doric columns. The carved decoration throughout is based on Renaissance examples.

Authorship: 'Lounge' for Wilmar was included on a list of Mackintosh's works compiled in the 1930s by Ronald Harrison, an early student of his architecture, who had access to the office records. It was also included on Harrison's list of a selection of drawings produced in the office during Mackintosh's time. Harrison evidently believed that Mackintosh contributed in some way to the design of the building, but no evidence has come to light to support this attribution. Rather the stylistic evidence, for example the carved decoration, strongly suggests that John Keppie designed the house.