Field Visit

Date September 1988

Event ID 1082656

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1082656

RCAHMS Inventory: Argyll Volume 7; Mid Argyll & Cowal, Medieval & Later Monuments

This substantial late 16th-century tower-house stands on Dunderave Point, a low promontory at the foot of a steep wooded hill-slope on the NW shore of Loch Fyne, about 5.8km from the head of the loch and 3km W of Ardkinglas (Nos. 110, 149) on the opposite shore. The headland immediately S of the tower rises to a rocky knoll which bears no visible structural remains, but on the shore to the E there are a boat-landing and slipways. The original building is an L-plan tower of four main storeys and a garret, erected by John MacNaughton in 1598, which remained in occupation, with minor alterations and additions, until the early 19th century. By the middle of that century it had become a roofless shell, but in 1911-12 it was restored and extended for the family of Sir Andrew Noble of Ardkinglas by (Sir) Robert Lorimer, architect (en.1).

These early 20th-century additions, which were designed to harmonise with the tower, consist principally of 1 ½ -storeyed ranges enclosing the N and S angles of a cobbled and paved courtyard which is bounded on the W by the tower itself and on the E by the approach to a terraced garden. The SW range, occupying the site of a single-storeyed gabled cottage, now consists of a service basement with a colonnaded loggia above. The S range comprises a music room and rope room on either side of a pend, and a library on the first floor. The L-plan layout of the NW and NE ranges contains the kitchen, services and servants' rooms. Gardens and a garden cottage were laid out in the area to the E of the castle, and the policies include a former boat-house (NN143098) and a cottage (NN 137098), formerly thatched and still retaining pronounced slab skews.

RCAHMS 1992, visited September 1988

[A full architectural description and historical note is provided in RCAHMS 1992, 264-273)