Inveraray Castle Estate, Malt Land, General

This 18th-century rectangular court of office- and farmbuilding sstands on the W bank of the River Aray, at the S end of the Maltland meadow (en.1*). 1 km NW of Inveraray Castle (No. 184). An earlier court known as the 'White Barns', grouped round three sides of a square, stood a little to the SE, and part of its central range is preserved in the E wall of the adjacent walled garden of 1752-5.

The development of the Maitland offices began with a coach-house, designed by John Adam to abut the garden wall in 1760-1 and completed with an adjacent lean-to range of stables and cottages in the early 1770s, probably under the supervision of William Mylne. At the same period a detached hay-barn was built 44m to the N. The project for a courtyard 98m in length had presumably been conceived by 1774, when Robert Mylne began to design the 'Great Shade' or workshop forming its W side, and two years later he produced a drawing for 'making the buildings behind the garden into a compleat farm yard'. A series of undated drawings for the completion of the court shows some variations in detail, but by 1782 the hay-barn had been doubled in width to the N, and the courtyard enclosed by range of single-storeyed drying-sheds flanking the hay-barn and returning to abut at the W the 'Great Shade' and at the E a Riding School of similar dimensions, designed by Mylne in 1780 (en.2). This last building, which was also employed as a hay-barn, was much used for amateur theatricals before being gutted by fire in 1817; it was restored in 1897 as the 'Jubilee Hall’ (en.3*). The NE range of drying-sheds had been removed before 1870, and the hay-barn, having already been considerably altered, was partially dismantled about 1960.

RCAHMS 1992, visited October 1986

[see RCAHMS 1992 No. 197 for a full architectural description]

RCAHMS surveyed Maltland Square, Inveraray Castle on 7 October 1986 producing a site plan at a scale of 1:200. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:500 (RCAHMS 1992, 424).

RCAHMS surveyed Maltland Square Coach House, Inveraray Castle on 9 October 1986 producing a reconstruction of the stable block north elevation at a scale of 1:100. The elevation was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:250 (RCAHMS 1992, 422B).

RCAHMS surveyed Maltland Square ‘Great Shade’, Inveraray Castle on 8 October 1986 producing an east elevation and section of the north range at a scale of 1:100. The elevation was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:500 (RCAHMS 1992, 423C).

The large kitchen garden, with its 6m high N wall (James Potter, mason), was laid out in 1752-5, close to the earlier 'White Barns'. A five-bay coach-house abutting the N wall was designed by John Adam in 1760 and completed in 1772-3, along with flanking single-storeyed cottages and stables (now mostly demolished). The Great Shed to the W (1774-5; ? Robert Mylne, architect) contained a smithy, sawmill and wrights' workshop, and still serves the last two functions. A dam 250m to the W supplied water-power to drive the sawmill during the 19th century. A series of masonry piers suppoted the double roof, and the E and W racades both incorporate giant arcades of five round-arched openings. Mylne produced several schemes for completing the courtyard (Inveraray, figs. 75, 80). The N side appears to have been enclosed by a wall which was incorporated in 1781-2 as the spine-wall of a long range of louvred hay-drying sheds, with a higher central barn (now ruinous). At the same time the E side, at one time intended for a second 'Great Shed', was filmed by a large Riding School (gutted by fire, 1817; rebuilt as Jubilee Hall, 1897). This building was much used for amateur theatricals in the early years of the 19th century and, perhaps because of the frequent involvement of Lady Charlotte Campbell, the Maitland was given the alternative name 'Charlotte Square' on the estate map of 1812.

Information from ‘RCAHMS Excursion guide 1990: Commissioners' field excursion, Argyll, 7-9 May 1990’.