RCAHMS Inventory: Stirlingshire

Date 1951 - 1961

Event ID 1086872

Category Project

Type Project

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1086872

RCAHMS Inventory Programme

We, Your Majesty's Commissioners, appointed to make an Inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions connected with or illustrative of the contemporary culture, civilisation and conditions of life of the people in Scotland from the earliest times to the year 1707, and such further Monuments and Constructions of a date subsequent to that year as may seem in our discretion worthy of mention therein, and to specify those which seem most worthy of preservation, humbly present to Your Majesty this our Sixteenth Report, together with an Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Stirlingshire and a list of those which, in our opinion, are most worthy of preservation. We also attach an additional list of monuments, discovered since the presentation of our Fifteenth Report, in areas covered by our survey of marginal lands likely to be affected by the expansion of agriculture and afforestation.

We record with grateful respect the receipt of the gracious message that accompanied Your Majesty's acceptance of the volume embodying our Fifteenth Report with Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Selkirkshire.

We desire to acknowledge the welcome assistance given us, during the preparation of the Inventory, by the owners and occupiers of ancient buildings and sites, and by parish ministers, throughout the County. We owe particular thanks to Lt-Col R L Hunter, TD, BSc, FSA, Mr A R Cross, MC, BA, LLB, Mrs Feachem, and Mr R Swift, for help in the field survey; to the Trustees of the Smith Institute, Stirling, for permission to take photographs and to study objects in the Institute; to Miss D M Hunter, MA, Curator of Falkirk Museum, for advice on the local records; to Mr. W. H. Gillespie, LRIBA, Burgh Architect of Stirling, and other municipal officers for assistance in the survey of the Burgh; to Mr A R B Haldane, LL.B., D.Litt., W.S., for information about drove roads; to the Cambridge University Committee for Aerial Photography, for permission to reproduce air-photographs; to Sir Thomas Innes of Learney and Kinnairdy, K.C.V.O., LL.D., Lord Lyon King of Arms, who kindly revised the heraldic matter in the Inventory; to the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and particularly to Mr. R. J. A. Eckford, FSA Scot., formerly one of its officers, for advice on geological questions; to the Department of Health for Scotland, for facilities for the study of air-photographs; and to the staffs of the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, the Ministry of Works and the Scottish Record Office for continual and valued co-operation.

We wish to record that the following past and present members of the staff took part in the preparation of the Stirlingshire Inventory; Mr A Graham, MA, FSA, and Mr K A Steer, MA, PhD, FSA, who also acted as Editors; the late Mr G P H Watson, MBE, FRIBA (retired), RSW; Messrs. C S T Calder, ARIAS, R W Feachem, MA, MSc, FSA, G D Hay, ARIBA, J G Dunbar, MA, FSA, A MacLaren, MA, G B Quick, AIBP, and I G Scott, DA (Edin.); Miss H McLaren and Miss A E H Muir.

The outstanding feature of this Inventory is Your Majesty's Royal Castle of Stirling, and we hope that our account of this great complex of buildings may serve to indicate its vanished magnificence. To this end we have also prepared a book on the carved wooden medallions, commonly known as the "Stirling Heads", which once formed the decoration of the ceiling of the King's Presence Chamber, and have issued it in advance of the Inventory [RCAHMS 1960]. Other buildings in Stirling, as well as in the County at large, admirably illustrate the standards of taste in domestic architecture in the 16th and 17th centuries. We have also found a great deal of interesting material of the 18th and early 19th centuries, some of it associated with the beginnings of industrial development, and we have taken full advantage of the discretion accorded us in His late Majesty's Royal Warrant of 1948 to give this adequate treatment. In prehistoric monuments the County is not particularly rich, though the survey has disclosed an interesting series of Early Iron Age structures which were either unrecorded or had been lost to sight. The Roman remains, on the other hand, are both numerous and important, including as they do a considerable stretch of the Antonine Wall, with its associated forts, and we have been able to undertake some original, productive research in this field, in addition to revising and amending earlier work.

We wish to take this opportunity of recording our gratification with the measures which have recently been announced by the Ministry of Works for safeguarding the visible remains of the Antonine Wall. At the same time we regard with the utmost concern the steady and progressive destruction of other monuments of all classes, particularly in areas of urban improvement or expansion, against which the existing safeguards seem to have little effect.

We record with great regret the death, which occurred in 1959, of Mr G P H Watson, MBE, FRIBA (retired), RSW. Mr Watson first joined the Commission's staff in 1911, was appointed full-time architect in 1914, being responsible for the architectural surveys from then until his retirement in 1952, and was then appointed a Commissioner. We humbly thank Your Majesty for the appointment of Mr A Graham, MA, FSA, to fill the vacancy.

In 1957 Mr K A Steer, MA, PhD, FSA, was appointed Secretary, on the retirement of Mr A Graham, MA, FSA. Three new officers have recently joined our staff, Mr. G B Quick, AIBP, in 1957, Mr I G Scott, DA (Edin.), in 1959, and Mr A C S Dixon, B Arch, ARIBA, in 1961.

RCAHMS 1963, xxi-xxii

WEMYSS, Chairman, I A RICHMOND, STUART PIGGOTT, W D SIMPSON, IAN G LINDSAY, W CROFT DICKINSON, ANNIE I DUNLOP, ANGUS GRAHAM, KENNETH A STEER, Secretary.