Taymouth Castle. Main staircase hall, view looking up from 1st. floor landing to North. Digital image of D/21769

Description Taymouth Castle. Main staircase hall, view looking up from 1st. floor landing to North. Digital image of D/21769

Date 8/9/1997

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number SC 766044

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 21769

Scope and Content Main staircase hall, Taymouth Castle, Perth & Kinross This shows the staircase tower which is over 24m high and lined with Gothic plasterwork, modelled between 1809 and 1812, by Francis Bernasconi. Features include slender columns with pinnacles, fan-vaulted ceiling and crockets (leafy knobs) on the canopies above the niches and doors. The hall is lit by the windows in the central square lantern (turret). The fourth Earl of Breadalbane (1762-1834) was so impressed by Bernasconi's work in the hall that he commissioned him to do all the plasterwork in the castle at the cost of just over £6,120. The hall is probably one of the finest examples of a Gothic Revival staircase in Scotland. Taymouth Castle was built for the Campbells of Breadalbane and stands on the site of Balloch Castle, which was built c.1550. Taymouth's main block, built between 1802 and 1810, was designed by James Elliot (1770-1810) and the east wing, built between 1818 and 1821, was designed by William Atkinson (c.1773-1839). The west pavilion, built in the early 18th century, was designed by William Adam (1689-1748) and was altered by James Gillespie Graham (1777-1855). The castle has important interior decoration by the Italian plasterer Francis Bernasconi and was visited by Queen Victoria in 1842. The Mactaggart family bought the estate in 1922 and converted the castle into a hotel and the deer park into a golf course. The castle was a convalescent home during World War II and has had several uses until c.1983 when it became unoccupied. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/766044

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap