Building record MHG25643 - Kingshouse Hotel

NN25SE 6 2592 5467

The 'Kings House' was built c.1750 as accomodation for troops and travellers. It was renovated in the early 1960's without altering its essential character.
SDD list 1963

The Kingshouse Hotel has been dropped from the previous statutory and / or descriptive lists.
SDD list 1985
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Reference - National Library of Scotland. Country Life 26 January 1945 - photograph.

Through the canyon-like Pass of Glencoe and out onto Rannoch Moor, and the only building for miles is: Kingshouse Hotel, mid-18th century, now much modernised and extended to cater for the hillclimbing brigade that has replaced `drovers, pedlars, soldiers and travellers' as its main clients. The original inn is still visible at its core, attractively sited beside Caulfeild's bridge of 1751-2. It was described by Dorothy Wordsworth in 1803 as `a large square building, cased in blue slates to defend it from storms …'. So negative was the appeal of Kingshouse, that it was offered with a grant rent free to any inn keeper willing to take it on. The foul nature of its accommodation was widely documented. In 1802 the Surveyor of Military Roads thought it 'had more the appearance of a hog stye than an Inn' and in 1819 Robert Southey wrote that it had 'handsome English china but no bread'.

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