Roybridge, Keppoch House

Keppoch House, c.1760-5 Traditional West Highland laird's house built by Ranald Macdonell, 17th Chief of Keppoch, to replace the earlier house destroyed after the '45. (For more on the Macdonells of Keppoch, see p.73). More generously proportioned than is usual, the two storeys are raised up over an exposed basement. Later 19th-century additions included the prominent gabled porch reached by a flight of steps, the flanking bi-partite windows, plate glass and canted dormers. Large walled garden, its once formal Victorian design of paths radiating out from a central hexagonal fountain now grassed over. This was the successor to the famous Garadh nam Pearan - Pear Garden - of Keppoch, destroyed by Cumberland's troop's in 1746 (one pear tree is said to survive). Barn, c.1750. An exemplary model of the Lochaber bank barn, its great whitewashed range (formerly lofted inside) pierced by slender rounded windows with louvres, and alternating pairs of slit vents.

[The Macdonalds (Macdonells) of Keppoch were not cadets of Glengarry but an independent clan, caught up like most of their neighbours in an endless round of land disputes and inter-clan feuding, of which the Keppoch Murders of 1663 were a particularly gruesome example. The 18th century found them constantly engaged in land feuds with the Mackintoshes, who eventually managed to hold this territory from after 1745 until 1945, prompting most of the Keppoch clan to emigrate.]

Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

NN28SE 3 26882 80922

For predecessor Old House of Keppoch (Keppoch Castle) at NN 2705 8077, see NN28SE 2.

(NN 2682 8092) Keppoch (NAT)

OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903)

The present Keppoch House was built by the 18th chief of the Macdonells of Keppoch about 1760; it occupies the site of an earlier Keppoch House built probably in the second half of the 17th century and burned by Government troops after Culloden. (This house replaced the earlier Keppoch House or Castle, NN28SE 2, situated on the river nearby.)

D B MacCulloch 1938.

Keppoch shown at approximatley the position it occupies today.

W Roy 1747-55.

Keppoch (name confirmed), a three storey stone-built farmhouse with attics, rendered walls, slate roof, porch with steps. Of little architectural interest. In fair condition. No traces of the 17th century house remain.

Visited by OS (A S P) 9 July 1961.