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Barsloisnoch

Farmstead (Post Medieval)

Site Name Barsloisnoch

Classification Farmstead (Post Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Barsloisnoch Farm; Barsloisnach; Poltalloch Estate

Canmore ID 39525

Site Number NR89NW 79

NGR NR 81119 95756

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/39525

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish Kilmartin
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Argyll

Archaeology Notes

NR89NW 79 81119 95756

This is a large one to one-and-a-half storeyed steading built for the Poltalloch Estate, 1860-62, which may incorporate parts of an earlier model farm. It has a courtyard with stables along one side and matching two-storeyed houses at either end. Cattle sheds lie opposite the stables, linked to them by the barn, and still contain some stalls. There is a new 'Atcost' shed to the rear. The steading is built of schist rubble with slate roofs.

Information from RCAHMS (SS), 10 January 2006.

Activities

Photographic Survey (1962)

Photographic survey of buildings on Poltalloch Estate, Argyll, by the Scottish National Buildings Record in 1962.

Field Visit (October 1988)

This large steading is situated on improved ground at the head of Loch Crinan, on the S edge of the policies of Poltalloch House (No. 177) and 1.7km E of Duntrune Castle (No. 128). It was built for Neill Malcolm of Poltalloch in 1860-2 at a cost of £7649, the mason contractor being John MacCorquodale (1). It measures about 80m from E to W by 60m over all, and the S range has a large central barn linked by lower wings to symmetrical two-storeyed three-bay gabled houses. The side-ranges are single-storeyed, and the E range contains wintering-sheds, with three transverse sheds projecting to the E.

The existing steading, however, replaced a smaller one on the same site, named 'Experiment' (2). This was the centre for the extensive agricultural improvements in Crinan Moss, begun after Neil Malcolm of Poltalloch acquired the Duntrune estate in 1796, under the direction of James Gow (see No. 68, number 114). Plans for the proposed steading were discussed by Gow, George Malcolm (see No. 175) and John Paterson, resident engineer at the Crinan Canal, and in March 1798 plans and estimates were supplied by George Steuart, the Perthshire-born but London-based architect (3*). A contract was signed in September 1798 with WilIiam Park, carpenter, to erect the steading for £1356, presumably to Steuart's design, and a separate contract was made with John Walker, millwright from East Lothian, to supply and fit the water-driven threshing-machine. This was probably the first of its kind in Argyll, and John Rennie advised on its watersupply during a visit to the Crinan Canal (4). The newly completed steading was visited in July 1800 by the 5th Duke of Argyll.

A detailed schedule of quantities by Paterson allows the reconstruction of the original design, which corresponds to a pencil drawing of 1815 by William Daniell (5*). The steading measured 41.5m from E to W by 40m, and at the centre of the S range was a three-bay three-storeyed house for the farm manager. Its flanking E wing contained the kitchen and domestic offices, with servants' rooms above, and in the W wing was a cartshed with granary above. The W range, 6.1m wide, contained the corn barn, threshing barn with external water wheel house, and straw barn. At each end of the N front there was a 6m square Dutch barn for hay, shown by Daniell with a pyramidal roof carried on tall columns, and the large central archway had a pyramidal roof with bellcot; to the w were stables and to the E byres. The E range comprised wintering-sheds 27.5m long, with open pillars towards the courtyard, and at the SE angle were a potato-store and milk-house.

The water-wheel, which was intended to be 4.3m in diameter and 1.2m wide, 6 was supplied by a mill-pond 300m to the NW, and additional water was brought in conduits from local watercourses. The agricultural improvement of the moss depended on liming (see No. 241), and a lime-kiln was built in 1801, 0.6km to the E, at 'Meall in Culcruick' (NR 818956), where an old quarry is visible behind Mheall Cottage.

RCAHMS 1992, visited October 1988

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