Seil, Ardencaple House

NM 763 193. This small laird's house of late 18th-century date is oblong on plan and comprises two main storeys in height. The building is symmetrically planned about a central passage and turnpike-staircase, which is extruded at the rear in a semicircular bay (Pl. 86c). The masonry is of harled rubble and the roof is of slate. The house has been altered on several occasions, and a number of external features, including the entrance-porch and dormer windows, are evidently additions. The interior has been completely remodelled, but in the original arrangement the ground-floor probably contained two rooms on each side of the central area, while on the floor above there seem to have been two small rooms on one side, and a single large drawing-room on the other. The chimney piece from this latter room, now in secondary use on the ground-floor, incorporates a plain grey marble surround framed within a pine-and-stucco architrave (Pl. 86D).The kitchen-wing on the SW side of the house appears to be contemporary with the main building, but has subsequently been raised in height.

Ardencaple was the residence of the MacDougalls of Ardencaple, and the present house was probably built by John MacDougall, who was seised in the estate as heir of his father, Coll MacDougall, in 1792 (SRO Abbreviated Register of Sasines (Argyll), 1781-1820, no. 703; NSA, vii (Argyll), 73-4).

RCAHMS 1975, visited April 1970.