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Recording Your Heritage Online
Event ID 564698
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Recording Your Heritage Online
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/564698
Monkstadt House (or Mugstead), 1732 -41 , interior remodelled by James Gillespie Graham, 1803
Plain former laird's house of five bays with later extension and porch, set above what was once an orchard on a sward of reclaimed land. Built for Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat re-using stones from Duntulm Castle, which it replaced as the Macdonald seat, Monkstadt was reputedly the first slated house in Skye. It became a tacksman's house after the Macdonalds moved to Armadale in 1798, and was ruinous by the 1950s. But measured drawings of 1928 document it well, recording elegant Georgian plasterwork and panelling. Recent investigation has revealed bits of 17th-century fireplaces behind window embrasures. Court of Farm Offices, Gillespie Graham, c.1803, also roofless, with surviving gearing and arm for two-beast horse-walk.
[In June 1746, the fugitive BPC, disguised as Betty Burke, landed with Flora Macdonald about a mile away from Monkstadt on the Kilbride shore, having sailed from Benbecula. He did not have the support of Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat, but his wife Margaret was sympathetic and helped them to reach Kingsburgh.]
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
