Kintyre, Machrihanish, Lossit House

A stone pediment bearing an heraldic achievement (Pl. 100E) stands over a garden doorway close to the N. end of the main drive of Lossit House. The shield bears, quarterly: 1st and 4th, a lion rampant; 2nd, a dexter hand couped fessways in chief, a salmon naiant in base; 3rd, a galley, on a chief three mullets. The crest is a dexter hand grasping a dagger; below the shield there is incised the motto VINCERE AUT MORI ("Conquer or die"). At one end of the projecting base of the stone there are incised the initials L M N with the date 1683. These initials and arms are evidently those of Lachlan MacNeil of Tirfergus and Lossit, who died in 1695, and from whom are descended the MacNeils of Ugadale (en.1) (cf. RCAHMS 1971, No. 367).

RCAHMS 1971, visited July 1961.

(en.1: Nisbet, Heraldry (1722 ed.), I, 425; Macneil, R. L., of Barra, The Clan Macneil (1923), 114, 118 f.)