Ardkinglas House is a Category A listed country house on the Ardkinglas Estate in

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

, Scotland. The estate lies on the eastern shore of

Loch Fyne Loch Fyne ( gd, Loch Fìne, ; meaning "Loch of the Vine/Wine"), is a sea loch off the Firth of Clyde and forms part of the coast of the Cowal peninsula. Located on the west coast of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It extends inland from the Sound o ...

, and the house is located close to the village of

Cairndow Cairndow; ( gd, An Càrn Dubh) is a coastal hamlet, on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scottish Highlands. The town lies between the A83 road and the head of Loch Fyne. Cairndow's school closed in 1988 after the roll fell to just 3 pupi ...

. Dating back to the 14th century and originally a

Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

property, the estate now covers more than of rolling hills and landscaped parkland. The centre of the estate was Ardkinglas Castle until this was replaced by a new house in the 18th century. This house was itself replaced by the present Ardkinglas House in the early 20th century, designed by Sir Robert Lorimer for Sir Andrew Noble. It remains the property of the Noble family, and is open to the public on a limited basis. The

woodland garden A woodland garden is a garden or section of a garden that includes large trees and is laid out so as to appear as more or less natural woodland, though it is often actually an artificial creation. Typically it includes plantings of flowering shrub ...

s are open all year round.

Estate history

Ardkinglas Castle

Ardkinglas Castle is thought to date from the 14th century. It was built in the form of a quadrangle around an inner courtyard measuring in each direction. There were large turrets on three of the corners, to the front there was a large gate tower with two flanking defensive turrets. By 1769 the castle was reported destroyed.

James VI of Scotland James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...

made James Campbell of Ardkinglas

comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...

and in February 1584 "general searcher" of customs of the West Sea, with powers to apprehend ships with forbidden cargoes. On 23 March 1679, Colin Campbell of Ardkinglas was made a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

. His son Sir James Campbell, 2nd baronet, (died 1752) sat in the

Parliament of Scotland The Parliament of Scotland ( sco, Pairlament o Scotland; gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba) was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland from the 13th century until 1707. The parliament evolved during the early 13th century from the king's council o ...

from 1702 and, following the

Union of Scotland and England The Acts of Union ( gd, Achd an Aonaidh) were two Acts of Parliament: the Union with Scotland Act 1706 passed by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act 1707 passed by the Parliament of Scotland. They put into effect the te ...

, in the Westminster Parliament until 1741. He purchased the Dunderave estate around 1700, and was succeeded by his grandson, Lt.Col. Sir James Livingston-Campbell, son of his eldest daughter Helen.

The first Ardkinglas House

During the 18th century the Campbells commissioned designs for a new house at Ardkinglas from some of the leading architects of the day, including

Colen Campbell Colen Campbell (15 June 1676 – 13 September 1729) was a pioneering Scottish architect and architectural writer, credited as a founder of the Georgian style. For most of his career, he resided in Italy and England. As well as his architectural ...

, Robert Adam and James Playfair. None of these designs were built, and the house constructed in 1795 has been described as "rather dull". This house was destroyed by fire in 1831 and, despite further designs from architects including William Burn and Alexander Binning, the family moved into the stable block which was adapted as the main house. In 1810, when Sir Alexander Livingston-Campbell died, Ardkinglas was inherited by his cousin James Callander of Craigforth, who subsequently changed his name to Campbell and adopted the style of a baronet, although he was not entitled to do so.

The present house

In 1905 Ardkinglas was purchased by Sir Andrew Noble, an expert on

ballistics Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially ranged weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets or the like; the science or art of designing and a ...

and gunnery who was chairman of Lord Armstrong's artillery works in Newcastle. Ardkinglas House was designed by architect Sir Robert Lorimer, and construction began in May 1906. Although Noble's deadline for completion of 1 August 1907 was not met, the house was fully completed in 21 months. The house was lit with electricity powered from a

hydro-electric plant Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

on the estate. John Noble inherited the estate in 1972, and began farming oysters in the loch. In 1988 he opened the first Loch Fyne Oyster Bar, now a national chain. The house has been used as a filming location for television series, including ''The Crow Road'' and films including '' The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep''. It is open to the public, although not on a regular basis. The house's original "Butler's Quarters" can be rented out.

Ardkinglas Gardens

The Woodland Gardens, dating back to the 18th century, are open year-round with views of the exterior of Ardkinglas House and its backdrop onto Loch Fyne. The Arboretum was planted in the 1860s-70s by the Callander family and has some specimens of large trees. One of these trees a Grand Fir (Abies grandis) held the record for many years as "The Tallest tree in Britain", another tree a Silver Fir (Abies alba) is described as the "Mightiest Conifer in Europe" with a trunk girth of over .

Ardkinglas Railway

The Ardkinglas Railway was a narrow gauge

estate railway There were more than a thousand British narrow-gauge railways ranging from large, historically significant common carriers to small, short-lived industrial railways. Many notable events in British railway history happened on narrow-gauge railways ...

built to serve the Ardkinglas Estate, former seat of

Sir James Campbell, 2nd Baronet, of Ardkinglass Sir James Campbell, 2nd Baronet of Ardkinglass, (c.1666 – 5 July 1752) was a British Army officer and Scottish politician who sat in the Parliament of Scotland from 1703 to 1707 and in the British House of Commons from 1707 to 1741. Early life ...

, on the shores of

. The railway ran along the shore of the loch from a boat house at Caspian. The railway was built as a transportation system for the estate and as a garden toy for the estate's 17th Laird, George Livingston-Campbell-Callander. A single

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

operated the line; rolling stock consisted of a two-seat open passenger carriage and several wagons. The railway had been dismantled by 1897 and the equipment sold. The boiler from the locomotive was still in situ on the beach at

Tayvallich Tayvallich (pronounced ; gd, Taigh a' Bhealaich ) is a small village in the Knapdale area of Argyll and Bute, in Scotland. The village name has its origins in Gaelic, and means the "house of the pass". The village is built around a sheltered harbo ...

on Loch Sween until the early 1950s.

References

* {{Authority control Houses in Argyll and Bute Category A listed buildings in Argyll and Bute Highland Estates Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes Castles in Argyll and Bute Former castles in Scotland Transport in Argyll and Bute Woodland gardens Country houses in Argyll and Bute