RCAHMS Excursion Guide

Following the launch of trove.scot in February 2025 we are now planning the retiral of some of our webservices. Canmore will be switched off on 24th June 2025. Information about the closure can be found on the HES website: Retiral of HES web services | Historic Environment Scotland

Date 1990

Event ID 1022155

Category Project

Type Project

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1022155

Between the 7th and 9th of May 1990, the RCAHMS Commissioners were taken to visit 22 significant sites recently recorded by the staff during the preparation of the final Argyll Inventory (RCAHMS 1992). To inform this trip an illustrated guide was prepared with a brief summary description of each site, and an introductory text. These short site descriptions were entered into the Canmore database in 2017, but readers are advised to consult the final publication for the most detailed account.

Information from RCAHMS (GFG) 11 May 2017

People and Organisations

Related Event(s)

Event	Type	Subtype	Notes	Date
1019691	DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS	PUBLICATION ACCOUNT	Now used as the Argyll Estate Office, this rectangular court was built to house the principal stables and coach-houses serving the new castle (John Adam, architect, 1758-61; completed by William Mylne, 1772-3). The E front, with its arched entry and Venetian windows, was much admired by early visitors. The open external arcade of the range was later infilled. In 1807 Joseph Bonomi prepared a scheme (not adopted) for doubling the width of the S and E ranges with additonal stables and coach-houses equal in height to the corner pavilions. At that period the E range contained the brewhouse and laundry; the N range, poultry houses and a stable; the W range, a 'flower room' and dairy and domestic accomodation, with a large cow-house (now demolished) to the W; and the S range, stables. [...]	1990
1019694	DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS	PUBLICATION ACCOUNT	A late-medieval cross of the Iona school was removed from Kirkapoll Churchyard, Tiree, to the gardens on Inverara Castle in the late 19th century; its removal to a sheltered position is now under consideration. The unique inscribed cross-base records that it is the cross of Fingon (MacKinnion), abbot (of Iona) in the late 14th century, and of the two of his sons. [...]	1990
1019687	DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS	PUBLICATION ACCOUNT	As constructed, this steading is half of an intended circle, placed in the valley-bottom to catch the winds for hay-drying. The old MacKellar township of Maam lay at the foot of the slope W of the existing farmhouse, but is not listed in the estate census of 1779. A series of drawings and occasional diary entries by Robert Mylne show the development of his design in the two years before its patial execution in 1787-9 (John Tavish, mason), and his extensive annotations of two drawings (A, C) probably record discussions with the 5th Duke of Argyll. In the first scheme the emphasis was on the rectangular courtyard-farm at the centre of a ring of great diameter but probably modest height, but the outer ring was later elaborated and took over most of the functions of the central block. An important feature was an intended tea-room for visitors to the glen. Although the foundations of the entire circle were visable until the 1960s, it was only the N half that was built, with its central barn and wings containing cattle-sheds in the inner, and drying-sheds in the outer, zone. The system of raised slatted floors for spreaidng and turning the hay, earlier used at the Fisherland and Maltland barns, is shown in an engraving (Smith, Agricultural Survey). The arcaded openings were filled by louvres of the type still preserved in the rectangular barn of 1793 at Elrigbeag (NN 136145), and sheaves of grain could be suspended from pegs to dry in the current of air. Wooden pinnacles were originally added to the central barn and the 'temporary' end-facades of the wings. [...]	1990

RCAHMS Excursion Guide

People and Organisations

Related Event(s)

References