Ardmaddy Castle

A measured survey was undertaken at Ardmaddy Castle in May 1970 to produce phased ground and first floor plans of the early Georgian House and a (partially reconstructed) principal elevation. The pencil drawings (AGD 735/2 and /4) were redrawn in ink (AGD 735/1 and /3) and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1975 figs. 215 and 216).

NM 785 164. This mansion (Pl. 87A, C) occupies the summit of a rocky knoll at the head of Ardmaddy Bay, some 6'9 km SW of Kilninver. The lowest storey of a late medieval tower-house, a residence of the family of MacDougall of Rarey, was in 1737 incorporated into a house of Palladian type built by Colin Campbell of Carwhin, chamberlain-of the Breadalbane estate in Argyll. This was extended in 1790 by the construction of a separate wing, linked to the original building by an archway with a passage above. Designs for the rebuilding of this addition were prepared by James Gillespie Graham in 1837, but remained unexecuted until 1862, when David Bryce supervised the construction of part of Graham's design, an L-shaped block in Jacobethan style. The house overlooks a walled garden with an ornamental bridge of mid-18th-century date,2and the court of offices, built to the designs of James Gillespie Graham in the years 1837-9, is also of interest.

The early building (fig. 215), which occupies the SE portion of the site, comprises a vaulted ground-floor of late medieval date surmounted by a first floor and garret of 1737. In its present form the house appears as a block measuring 14.5m from NW to SE by 13.6m transversely, the central part of the NE façade being deeply recessed. The medieval tower-house measured 14.5m from NW to SE by 8.7m transversely over walls varying in thickness from 2.3m to 2.4m, except the NE wall which was 1.2m in thickness; the walls of the building of 1737 vary in thickness from 0.7m to 0.8m. On plan, the lowest stage of the tower comprised an axially vaulted cellar divided by a cross-wall into two compartments, which were entered by separate doors from a vaulted passage running along the NE side of the building. In 1737 the house was extended towards the NE by the construction of two wings, each containing an apartment, linked by a vestibule. At first-floor level the central portion of the house (Pl. 88b) is occupied by a pillared portico and staircase-hall, flanked on each side by one larger and one smaller room. The masonry of both periods consists mainly of rubble, harled and white-washed. Slate is freely used in the barrel-vault of the medieval cellars. Extensive use is made of freestone dressings in the work of 1737; these are of a fine-grained whitish sandstone but are painted over. The hipped roofs have a slightly bell-cast; they are covered with local slates, fastened by wooden pegs to sarking boards which are mostly of 18th century date. Many of the windows retain thick glazing-bars of the same date, chamfered externally and ovolo-moulded within.

See RCAHMS 1975 (pp. 248-52, No. 310) for a detailed architectural description and historical note.

RCAHMS 1975, visited May 1970.