Field Visit
Date March 1985
Event ID 1083055
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1083055
This small circular house is situated at a height of 50m OD on the SW slope of Dun na Cuaiche, about 650m N of Inveraray Castle (No. 184) and l00m SE of the lime-kiln No. 237. It was designed as a gamekeeper's cottage in 1801 by Alexander Nasmyth, who suggested that its central chimney would be acceptable locally because of its similarity to 'the old cradle chimney' or canopied central hearth of traditional rural dwellings (en.1).
The cottage measures 8.9m in diameter over walls which rise with a slight batter to window-sill level, where they have a thickness of 0.7m; the masonry is of lime-mortared granite rubble, formerly harled and whitewashed. The entrance doorway ,in the E sector, is now enclosed in a semicircular timber porch of recent origin, but built on an older platform of granite blocks. There are three irregularly-spaced window openings, and an external recess for a simulated window in the SW sector. Two of the windows have modern frames, and one has been enlarged, but the NE window retains half of a latticed frame. The conical roof, now slated, rises to a circular ashlar chimney incorporating a deep ring to shed rain-waterat the junction with the original thatch.
Nasmyth's intention was that the square central chimney-stack should be free-standing, except for one segment partitioned off as a kitchen, but the interior is now divided into two main rooms of equal size, with partitions and fireplaces of late 19th-century character. At this period the walls were lined with vertical boards, but they were originally plastered and colour-washed, and in the NE sector there are remains of a band of stencilled foliage-ornament about 1m above floor level. In the W sector there is a curved recess, probably to house a small timber stair to the loft, but now concealed behind the added wall-linings. The lower part of the chimney-stack is built of stone, although Nasmyth proposed to incorporate sheet-iron to radiate 'a very general and wholsome heat to all the Coatage’ (en.2). Above ceiling-level it is constructed in brick, and in the upper part it is bevelled to an octagonal plan to support the circular chimney. The timber roof probably dates from the period when the original thatch was replaced by slates.
RCAHSM 1992, visited March 1985
