Field Visit

Date 28 April 1955

Event ID 1120404

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1120404

RCAHMS Inventory: Stirlingshire

The Garrison, Inversnaid.

The remains of the Barrack of Inversnaid stand on a small eminence about 250 yds. NE. of the confluence of the Arklet Water and the Snaid Burn. The barrack, with those at Kiliwhimen (Fort Augustus), Bernera and Ruthven, was erected in the years following the rebellion of 1715 as part of the Government's plan for controlling the Highlands. The site commands the pass between Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine, and the primary function of the post was to protect the route that ran from Dumbarton via Loch Lomond, Loch Katrine and Loch Tay to join the main Dunkeld-Inverness road at Blair Atholl (cf. RCAHMS 1963 No. 523). The Barrack is placed to overlook two fords-those by which, respectively, the Dumbarton road crosses the Arklet Water (cf. RCAHMS 1963 No. 521) and the road from Inversnaid Harbour crosses the Snaid Burn (cf. RCAHMS 1963 No. 522) before joining the Dumbarton road 80 yds. SW. of the Garrison.

Sites for all four Barracks were agreed upon in August 1717 (1), the Board of Ordnance being responsible for their erection and maintenance. Early in the following year James Smith was appointed "Surveyor and Chief Director for Carrying on the Barracks" in North Britain, and at the same time Major Thomas Gordon was made Chief Overseer, under Smith, at Inversnaid, with Lieutenants Dumaresque and Bastide as Clerk of Works and Draughtsman respectively (2). Work began in the spring of 1718 and was continued throughout the summer and autumn, although not without interruption; there is a report of a party of eight masons and quarriers being carried off by armed Highlanders on 8th August (3). Building contracts were signed on 14th June (4), the principal contractors being Gilbert Smith, mason, Robert Mowbray, carpenter, and James Syme, slater, all of whom were also engaged upon the Barrack of Kiliwhimen. Work stopped in late autumn but was resumed in the spring of 1719, although in January Smith was replaced by Andrews Jelfe (5) who is described as "Architect and Clerk of the Works for this office in Great Brittain" (6). By the autumn of 1719 the buildings were approaching completion, Inversnaid being the first of the four Barracks to be finished.

The Barrack is said to have been destroyed during the rebellion of 1745 (7) and then rebuilt, but, although plans were made for new buildings at this time (8), they were not carried out and the structure seen today is that erected in 1718 and 1719. The Garrison was kept in repair until the late 18th century, but a survey of 1823 stated that it was becoming ruinous, the only occupants at that time being two women, one of whom kept "a kind of inn" in one of the barrack blocks (9). Neither the Engineer Department nor the Barrack Department would admit responsibility for the buildings, and as the site had by that time lost its military significance it was handed back to the Duke of Montrose.

Contemporary plans of the Barrack survive (10) and show it as an approximately square enclosure, on the N. and S. sides of which two barrack-blocks faced each other across a courtyard. The W. and E. sides were provided with rampart walks carried on vaulted under-crofts and the entrance was centrally placed in the W. wall. At the NE. and SW. angles of the enclosure towers of two storeys gave flanking fire to the four main walls, the ground floor of the NE. tower being used as a bake house and brew-house and that of the SW. tower as a guard-room. Loop-holes were also provided in the rear walls of the barrack-blocks and in the vaulted chambers that supported the rampart walks. Provision was made in the plan for towers at the remaining two corners of the enclosure and for the strengthening of the entrance, but there was insufficient money to complete these additional works. The plan as carried out should be compared with those of Kiliwhimen, Ruthven and Bernera (11), all four Barracks being very much alike; Kiliwhimen and Bernera were slightly larger than Inversnaid, and had more substantial barrack-blocks, but Ruthven provides an almost exact parallel. Credit for these Barracks has been given to J. L. Romer (12), whose father William Romer had achieved some fame as an expert in the art of fortification; Romer, however replaced Jelfe as Chief Overseer in North Britain only in January 1720 (13), by which date Inversnaid was virtually complete and two years' work had been done on Kiliwhimen. As the erection of the four Barracks had been planned as a single operation as early as 1717, it is clear that Romer did no more than complete a programme which had been laid down by his predecessors, Smith and Jelfe.

The site of the Barrack of Inversnaid is today occupied by farm buildings, many of which, however, incorporate portions of the original structure. The masonry is of rubble drawn from a quarry on the N. bank of the Arklet Water, which is marked on a contemporary site-plan. Nothing remains of the original W. wall of the enclosure or of the SW. tower, the present farmhouse and a byre now occupying these parts of the site. The line of the original approach-road is visible, however, as a slightly hollowed roadway running in an E.-W. direction immediately to the W. of the byre and 53 ft. N. of the SW. angle of the farmhouse. Substantial traces also remain of the two barrack-blocks. Each was of three storeys, and had a central staircase with a barrack-room on either side on each floor; there were windows on the courtyard side only, the outer walls being pierced by loop-holes. Three sides of the N. block remain and are incorporated in a sheep-pen: the N. wall rises to a maximum height of 17 ft. 6 in. and contains seven symmetrically placed loop-holes which are splayed both internally and externally and have sloping sills. The doorway now seen in this wall is not an original feature. The gables and stairwell are reduced in height to a few courses and have been adapted for later use, while the S. wall has been replaced by a later wall which runs parallel to the site of the original one but a little to the S. of it. The S. barrack-block has been largely rebuilt and is now used as a barn, but the lower portions of the N. and S. walls and of the W. gable remain to a maximum height of 8 ft. Immediately to the E. of the barrack-block the vents for the private soldiers' latrines can be seen in the S. wall of the enclosure. Of the E. wall of the Barracks, the footings remain along its entire length and the original masonry is preserved to a height of 8 ft. at the S. end. The S. wall of the NE. tower rises to a height of 10 ft., but the N. wall has disappeared completely, and of the W. and E. walls only the foundations are visible. About 15 ft. SW. of the tower is a well, now filled up, but plainly visible on the ground as a circular outline of stones. The well was supplied by an aqueduct fed from a small burn 50 yds. NE. of the Barrack. The aqueduct, which is marked on a contemporary plan (14), is visible today for about half its length as a channel in the turf about 3 ft. in width and 2 ft. in depth.

RCAHMS 1963, visited 28 April 1955.

NN 348096, N ii ("Garrison of Inversnaid, Remains of")

Endnotes:

(1) Public Record Office (P.R.O.), W.O. 47/30, 228-9.

(2) Ibid., 47/31, 57.

(3) Ibid. , 235.

(4) E.g. Ibid., 48/60, list dated June 28, 1720, No. 35.

(5) On whom see Colvin, English Architects, 318.

(6) P.R.O., W.O. 47/32, 21.

(7) Stat. Acct., ix (1793), 25.

(8) B.M. (Map Room), K. Top. L. 100.

(9) P.R.O., W.O. 44/2 72.

(10) National Library of Scotland MS. 1648, Z 3/II, Z 3/16, Z 3/17, Z 3/18. Of these plans, Z 3/I7e (PI. II8) appears to be a preliminary draft, Z 3/17a to incorporate some minor modifications of the original scheme, and Z 3/ 1 la to represent the work actually carried out.

(11) National Library of Scotland MS. 1648, Z 3/18.

(12) Colvin, English Architects, 513, following D.N.B

(13) P.R.O., W.O. 47133, 58.

(14) National Library of Scotland MS. 1648, Z 3/11