Inveraray Castle Estate, Maam Steading

This remarkable structure, half of an intended circle 71m in diameter, stands on the level valley-bottom of Glen Shira, 1.2km NNE of the Dubh Loch, in a position designed to create the maximum draught for hay-drying. Following the enclosure of the lower part of the glen about 1750 (see No. 216), and the canalisation of the River Shira from Maam to the Dubh Loch some years later (en.l), the area was devoted to intensive cattle-rearing and hay-production, and the old MacKellar township of Maam appears to have been deserted by 1779 (en.2*). The construction of the Dubh Loch Bridge (No. 263) in 1785-7 opened the glen to visitors, and the steading at Maam was seen by the 5th Duke of Argyll as the show-piece of his agricultural improvements.

In July 1784 Robert Mylne sent the Duke 'a small plan for farm buildings in Glen Shira', and the development of the scheme during the next two years is recorded in a series of drawings and engravings, two of which bear extensive annotations by Mylne recording conversations with the Duke (en.3). The design was transformed from a freestanding rectangular steading encircled by a wall 91m in diameter incorporating low lean-to sheds and four small barns, to one where the circle, although smaller in diameter, was elaborated to the exclusion of the internal buildings. The style of the building was also transformed, and alterations were made to the third scheme to give the effect of 'a Gothick open arcade and towers, the idea taken from Holland House or a convent with cloisters (en.4*), Mylne's final design envisaged a circle of double-width sheds incorporating at the N a drying-barn and at the S a combined bailiffs house and dairy with tea-room, but only the N half of the scheme was completed, although the circular foundation for the S half remained visible until about 1965 (en.5). The N half was built between 1787 and 1790, with John Tavish as principal mason, and incorporated timber pinnacles and other Gothick ornaments which do not survive (en.6). The steading is still in agricultural use, and a Dutch barn and sheep-handling unit occupy the courtyard enclosed by its curved wings.

The existing structure comprises an almost complete hollow semicircle, 71m in overall diameter, formed by two wings, each 10.2m in width, abutting a large central barn. The masonry is of local rubble, with polished schist dressings in the barn and the end-facades of the wings. There are extensive remains of the original harling, 'not quite white' (en.7), and of internal wall-plaster. The roofs were originally slated but are now covered with corrugated metal.

The barn is a two-storeyed rectangle measuring 18.6m by 11.3m over 0.8m walls, incorporating a central bow to the N. Its height to the crenellated parapet is 9.7m, and the modern roof reproduces the original double-hipped profile. The S facade has at each level a large central arch-pointed opening for loading and draught-control, flanked by two buttresses which rise to the base of a gabled pediment containing a large blocked oculus. In the side-bays there are blocked arch-pointed doorways, and circular openings in the upper storey which is defined by a broad band of ashlar. Narrower horizontal bands are linked to the respective springing-levels of the doorways in the central and side-bays. The angle-piers of the crenellated parapet are capped by moulded schist cornice-blocks, and the intermediate embrasures have projecting slab sills and copings. Early engravings indicate that the angle-piers were to be fitted with timber pinnacles, and the pediment with barge-boards. The N facade is similar in general design but lacks the buttresses, and the crenellated wall-head runs horizontally above the central bow, which is 7m in width and was designed to correspond to a similar feature in the S block of the intended circle. The end-walls are largely concealed by the wings, but have the same crenellated parapet as the other elevations.

The interior of the barn is divided longitudinally by a rubble mid-wall supporting the double roof. It rises to the same height as the internal wall-head of the barn, about 8m, and is pierced by three tall arches. A timber floor at a height of 4.3m has disappeared except above an inserted workroom in the NW angle, but the close-set joist-holes supporting it are visible. The S half of this floor was designed for threshing whereas the N half was 'composed of battens S inches (130mm) broad and laid 2 inches (50mm) asunder, for the purpose of admitting a circulation of Air' for drying hay and corn (en.8*). Smith's description also mentions a 'third or upper floor' of similar open design, but there is no identifiable structural evidence for this. In the end-walls there are doorways into the side-wings and upper-level arches, subsequently blocked, giving access to the drying-lofts in the wings (en.9*). The ground floor of the barn was originally paved with flagstones, and part was used as a potato-store (en.10), but it now has a concrete floor.

In their original arrangement the side-wings housed cowsheds in the inner ring and 'open sheds' in the outer one, with drying-lofts above. In each quadrant the inner and outer walls were formed by rectangular masonry piers flanking seven open bays; these piers have rough external plinths, and rise to support wall-plates at a height of about 4.5m. The bays were divided horizontally at a height of 2.8m by beams supporting Gothic arches of timber, probably louvred for ventilation and hinged for loading as in the surviving examples at Elrigbeag (No. 221) (en.11*). In the E quadrant schist corbels for these timber beams remain in situ, although the beams themselves have been renewed, whereas in the W quadrant they have been replaced by cast-iron lintels. The lower parts of the bays are now infilled with breeze-blocks and the upper parts with timber slats or metal sheeting. Both quadrants end at the S in high screen-walls, with clasping buttresses and crenellations similar to those of the barn. The two openings in each wall have been completely renewed, and there is no evidence as to whether the elaborate Gothick treatment shown in Smith's engravings ever existed (en.12*).

The internal arrangement is best preserved in the E quadrant, where there is a continuous mid-wall from which piers corresponding to those of the outer walls rise to support the roof-ridge at a height of 7.5m. Each bay of the mid-wall is pierced by a ground-level doorway, but most of these openings are now blocked. The lower sections of the mid-wall carried joists supporting the slatted drying-floor, and blocked sockets for similar joists are visible in the faces of the piers. At a higher level the piers incorporate timber brackets, similar to those at Elrigbeag (No. 221), supporting the collar-beams and struts of the renewed timber roof, but perhaps originally also associated with the system of moveable grain-drying frames described by Smith. In the W quadrant the arrangement has been similar, but part of the mid-wall has been completely removed and the remainder reduced to a uniform height and its doorways blocked.

Maam farmhouse, which stands 80m N of the steading and was built in the first quarter of the 19th century by General Charles Turner (en.13*), is a harled rectangular building of two storeys with a projecting centrepiece to the S contained under a short cat slide roof. Estate-plans of about 1790 and 1806 (en.14) show a lime-kiln or 'Braco kiln' 130m W of the steading, and from that site the 'road to lyme quarry' can be traced up the steep hillside for about 1 km to a quarry close to a late 19th century sheepfold (NN 117136).

RCAHMS 1992, visited June 1985

RCAHMS surveyed Maam steading between 24-27 June 1985 producing a plan at a scale of 1:200 and a section of the wing at a scale of 1:100. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:500 (RCAHMS 1992, 475E), the section was published at 1:250 (RCAHMS 1992, 476C).

As constructed, this steading is half of an intended circle, placed in the valley-bottom to catch the winds for hay-drying. The old MacKellar township of Maam lay at the foot of the slope W of the existing farmhouse, but is not listed in the estate census of 1779. A series of drawings and occasional diary entries by Robert Mylne show the development of his design in the two years before its patial execution in 1787-9 (John Tavish, mason), and his extensive annotations of two drawings (A, C) probably record discussions with the 5th Duke of Argyll. In the first scheme the emphasis was on the rectangular courtyard-farm at the centre of a ring of great diameter but probably modest height, but the outer ring was later elaborated and took over most of the functions of the central block. An important feature was an intended tea-room for visitors to the glen. Although the foundations of the entire circle were visable until the 1960s, it was only the N half that was built, with its central barn and wings containing cattle-sheds in the inner, and drying-sheds in the outer, zone. The system of raised slatted floors for spreaidng and turning the hay, earlier used at the Fisherland and Maltland barns, is shown in an engraving (Smith, Agricultural Survey). The arcaded openings were filled by louvres of the type still preserved in the rectangular barn of 1793 at Elrigbeag (NN 136145), and sheaves of grain could be suspended from pegs to dry in the current of air. Wooden pinnacles were originally added to the central barn and the 'temporary' end-facades of the wings.

An 1806 plan shows a lime-kiln ('Braco Kiln') W of the steading, and a winding track can still be traced to the limestone-quarry beside a later sheepfold high above the valley (NN 116135).

Information from ‘RCAHMS Excursion Guide 1990: Commissioners' field excursion, Argyll, 7-9 May 1990’.