South Ballachulish, Ballachulish House
Lairds House (18th Century)
Site Name South Ballachulish, Ballachulish House
Classification Lairds House (18th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Ballachulish House
Canmore ID 23555
Site Number NN05NW 2
NGR NN 04806 59215
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/23555
- Council Highland
- Parish Lismore And Appin (Lochaber)
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Lochaber
- Former County Argyll
Ballachulish House, from later 18th century Replacing the earlier seat of the Stewarts of Ballachulish, destroyed in 1746, this typically plain, harled laird's house was originally Uplan (one wing was demolished after 1872). The front range, added c.1800, reorientated the house to face west and created a double pile centre block. Internal finishes mostly 19th century; improvements by Simpson & Brown Architects, 1992-3 and 1997. A marriage lintel dated 1692 is incorporated into the bothy wall.
[It was while quartered at Ballachulish House in February 1692 that Major Robert Duncanson wrote a letter to Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon (under the direction of John Dalrymple, Master of Stair, endorsed by King William) ordering him to 'fall upon the rebels the Macdonalds of Glencoe, and putt all to the sword under seventy'.]
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
NN05NW 2.00 04806 59215
NN05NW 2.01 04817 59193 Bothy
NN05NW 2.02 04833 59270 Walled Garden
(NN 0480 5922) Ballachulish House (NAT).
OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)
This house comprises a two-storied main block, a north wing of the same height and a south kitchen-wing incorporating one main storey and a garret. The main block comprises two distinct ranges of buildings, roofed independently of each other, and each measuring 16.5 metres overall. The east range is probably the nucleus of the present house and probably dates from about 1764. The west range appears to date from about 1799, whilst the north wing and the south kitchen-wing probably date from the first half of the 19th century. The interior of the house has been considerably re-modelled.
SDD state that an original house, in which the decision on the date for the Massacre of Glencoe was made in 1692, was burned down by Hanoverian soldiers in 1746. Until about 1880, Ballachulish House was the seat of the Stewarts of Ballachulish.
RCAHMS 1975, visited June 1971; SDD 1960-
A plain, restored house as described.
Surveyed at 1:2500 scale.
Visited by OS (D W R) 17 November 1971.
Owner, Ballachulish Estate Co., per W. F. Haldane, Edinburgh
Field Visit (June 1971)
NN 048 592. This house comprises a two storeyed main block, a N wing of the same height, and a S kitchen-wing incorporating one main storey and a garret. All the buildings are of plain harled rubble with slate roofs. The main block comprises two distinct ranges of buildings roofed independently of each other. Both measure 16'5 m in length over all, but whereas the E range has an internal width of about 4'3 m, the W range has a width of 5' 5 m. The E range evidently forms the nucleus of the present house and probably dates from about the middle of the 18th century, perhaps from 1764 (infra). Only the E wall is now exposed, and this incorporates a central doorway and two rows of symmetrically-placed windows, most of which have been enlarged. The W range (Pl. 90A), which appears to have been under construction in 1799 (Stoddart, Local Scenery, ii, 25), has a similar five-window front and doorway. The N wing and the S kitchen-wing probably date from the first half of the19th century.
The interior has been considerably remodelled. The original house probably comprised two main rooms on each floor flanking a central staircase, but the present staircase in this position (Pl. 90B) belongs to the second building-period and serves both portions of the main block. The lowest flight of the stair is of stone with a plain wrought-iron balustrade and mahogany hand-rail. The arrangement of the W portion of the main block is similar, but the greater width makes the rooms considerably more spacious. The present drawing-room, occupying the N end of the main block, contains two marble chimney-pieces of early Victorian date.
CARVED STONE. The bothy that lies immediately to the SE of the house incorporates a window-lintel bearing an incised heart flanked by the initials I S and M W and the date 1764. These are evidently the initials of John Stewart, 5th of Ballachulish, and his wife Margaret, daughter of William Wilson of Murrayshall (The Stewarts of Appin (1880), 181-2). John Stewart succeeded his father in the Ballachulish property in 1774 and died in 1794. It seems likely that the lintel was formerly incorporated in the adjacent house, whose date of erection it may commemorate.
RCAHMS 1975, visited June 1971.
