Monument record MHG286 - Township, Airigh Shamhraidh

Summary

No summary available.

Location

Grid reference Centred NM 8415 4939 (315m by 256m) (Buffered by site type)
Map sheet NM84NW
Old County ARGYLL
Civil Parish ARDGOUR
Geographical Area LOCHABER

Map

Type and Period (1)

Full Description

The remains of this early 18th-century laird's house, with associated enclosures and rig-cultivation, and other fragmentary buildings, occupy a remote site on the SE coast of Kingairloch. The principal building, rectangular on plan and two-storeyed, is now so ruinous that, although its gable-walls stand to their full height, no openings survive in the side-walls. A second roofless building, also two-storeyed, stands at right angles to it; the distance between their adjacent angles being only 1.4m. Both structures are built of random-rubble masonry, bonded in lime mortar and harled externally.
To the E of these buildings there is a large tree-lined rectangular enclosure, apparently corresponding to that indicated on Roy's Map of about 1750. The level ground SW of the buildings, separated from them by a small stream, is occupied by the footings of two structures, both corn-drying kilns. The larger of these, situated some 60m S of the principal building, is a combined kiln-barn. The other is situated 27m W of the house. A ruinous dwelling of dry-stone masonry with cruck-recesses in the side and gable-walls, occupies the summit of a small knoll some 100m W of the main group of buildings. A smaller round-angled structure situated NE of the building just described was probably an outhouse associated with it.
Despite its name ('the summer shieling'), Airigh Shamhraidh appears on record as a permanent settlement in the early 16th century. The principal buildings described above probably belong to the first half of the 18th century, although the large kiln-barn is of earlier date. When the Kingairloch estate was acquired by James Forbes of Hutton Hall in 1800, the principal residence was established in a more accessible position at Corry, the site of the present Kingairloch House, and the older mansion became a subsidiary farm.
Visited June 1971
RCAHMS 1980

Five unroofed buildings, one of which is a long building of three compartments, one roofed building and one enclosure are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire 1875, sheet lvi). Five unroofed buildings, one of which has three compartments, and one enclosure are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1974).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 19 May 1998

Sources/Archives (2)

  • --- Text/Publication/Volume: Gaskell, P. 1968. Morvern transformed: a highland parish in the nineteenth century. 168.
  • --- Text/Report: RCAHMS. 1980. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 3: Mull, Tiree, Coll and Northern Argyll (excluding the early medieval and later monuments of Iona). . 227, no. 348.

Finds (0)

Protected Status/Designation

Related Monuments/Buildings (3)

Related Events/Activities (1)

Record last edited

Apr 18 2017 10:57AM

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