Inveraray, Newtown, Newton Row, General
General View (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Inveraray, Newtown, Newton Row, General
Classification General View (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Newtown Cottages, Newton General
Canmore ID 151702
Site Number NN00NE 91
NGR NN 0938 0816
NGR Description From NN 0938 0816 to NN 0933 0794
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/151702
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Inveraray
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
Architect: James Peddie, Leith 1817 - designs 2 large houses - built after his bankruptcy
Field Visit (May 1989)
Newton Row, generally referred to in the 18th century as the Gallowgate, is separated by about l00m from the S end of the New Town of Inveraray and extends S for 230m,fronting E onto the A83 road where it runs on an 18thcenturyembankment along the shore of Newtown Bay. It was described in 1776 as 'the long row of houses in the Fisherland', and was begun in 1749, a year before the first building in the planned town, to provide simple slated cottages, eventually sixteen in number but in many cases subdivided, for the estate's masons, carters and, for a time, linen-weavers. The N end of the row appears to have been truncated by the construction of the Avenue Wall some years later and a derelict cottage at the S end of the row was removed about 1962.
By about 1760 some of the cottages had been improved by additional windows for superior tenants, including one of the parish ministers and two schoolmasters. In the late 18th and early 19th century several properties were rebuilt, including two elegant houses begun in 1817, and in the 1840s new institutions including the Secession congregation and the Free Church acquired building-plots at the N end of the row. Most of the domestic rebuilding took place in the middle of the row where on the W there was garden ground extending to the avenue, but at the S end the estate retained ground for stables and barns, and a massive hay-drying barn to serve the adjacent Fisherland Meadow was built there in 1772. To the S, the remaining area between the avenue and Loch Fyne was subsequently occupied by several large houses, including the Lowland manse built in 1841 and the Free Church manse (now Craigdhu House) of 1851 (en.1).
RCAHMS 1992, visited May 1989
[see RCAHMS 1992, No. 210, for a full architectural description]
