Ardanaiseig House

Architect William Burn 1833-34. Measured drawings from 1833.

NN 088 249. This extensive mansion, formerly known as New Inverawe, is situated about 100 m from the W shore of Loch Awe and 5.5 km ENE of Kilchrenan. It was built for James Archibald Campbell, a descendant of the family of Campbell of Inverawe (Johnston, Campbell Heraldry, ii, 53-4). The architect was William Burn, of Edinburgh, whose original drawings (Pl. 85A), which are dated 1833 (preserved in NMRS), show that the design was modified at an early stage. A tall stair-tower in the centre of the main block was omitted, and the garret space, which was originally designed to contain additional accommodation, was not used; the roof-line was lowered, and some alteration made to the form of the gables. Externally the building remains almost unchanged; the interior, however, was extensively remodelled early in the 20th century.

The principal apartments form a squarish block at the SE corner of the site, containing a basement and two floors. This is connected by a N wing to a stable court which occupies three sides of a square. The walls are built of stugged granite, with abundant dressings and ornamental stonework executed in a greenish sandstone. The entrance is in the W front, which is elaborately asymmetrical with a profusion of gables, projecting chimney-breasts, dormers, stair-turrets and false slit-windows. The entrance-doorway (PI. 86A) is in the Jacobean style; it has a panelled and moulded architrave, surmounted by a blank panel enclosed in strapwork. The Sand E facades (Pls. 85B, 86B) are less elaborate, the main decorative feature of each being a bay-window. That at the W end of the S facade is one storey in height and terminates in a strapwork balustrade, while that at the S end of the E facade rises through two storeys and has a moulded cornice.

The entrance gives access through a lobby to a large staircase which has been completely rebuilt. Two rooms, each lit by a bay-window and linked by a wide doorway, occupy the S part of the main block, and a third room occupies the remainder of the E side. In the W wall of this room there is a modern fireplace, which incorporates a spirally-fluted wooden column decorated with continuous foliage in the fluting and having a moulded base and a Corinthian capital. This column appears to be of 17th-century date, and may be Scottish in origin. The remaining rooms present no features of interest, except for the laundry which is situated below the E wing of the stables. This is a stone-floored apartment, 4'9 m square, with a central pillar supporting a stone groin-vault.

RCAHMS 1975, visited September 1969

NN 0897 2489 A watching brief of excavations for a new accommodation block on the shore opposite the SAM

crannog (NN026SE6) was undertaken on 3 August 2007. No archaeological deposits were found.

Archive held by FAS until deposited with RCAHMS.

Fiona Baker, 2007.