Field Visit
Date August 1977
Event ID 819117
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/819117
This well-preserved planned village was founded on the farm of Glassans by Walter Frederick Campbell of Islay in 1828, and was named in honour of his mother. Lady Charlotte Campbell.' Although occupying a coastal site on the w shore of Loch Indaal, the settlement was primarily agricultural in its original purpose and was partly intended to serve a distillery, which was established in 1829.
The remains of Lochindaal Distillery are situated at the N end of the village on the right bank of the Abhuinn Gearach, and groups of domestic buildings are arranged in a curvilinear pattern over a distance of about 500m on the w side of the highway which runs southwards to Portnahaven. At the centre of the village, terraced rows of houses are also grouped on the lower (E) side of this road and along the lanes leading down to and fronting the fore-shore; one of these lanes intersects the main road and continues its ascent westwards towards a former school-building and ultimately to Kilchiaran. Linear walled gardens are ranged behind the W properties, and the principal agricultural lots were originally
situated further to the W.
The houses are for the most part plain two-storeyed rectangular blocks of symmetrical three-bay design, whose frontages vary between about 8-7m and 10-1 m in width. They are constructed of harled or rendered limewashed rubble-masonry, and the majority have painted offset doorway-margins wrought with a simple chamfer. The first floor of one of the low-level houses on the E side of the main road is reached directly by a bridge, and a building with an external forestair stands near the shore at the S end of the village.
Visited August 1977
RCAHMS 1984
