The Glencripesdale Estate is a country estate situated along the south side of Loch Sunart, a

sea loch ''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch. In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spelling ...

in the west

highlands of Scotland The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

. Today, the Isle of

Càrna Carna or Càrna is an island in Loch Sunart, an arm of the sea, close to the Ardnamurchan peninsula, on the west coast of Scotland. Geography Carna lies wedged across the mouth of Loch Teacuis in the middle of Loch Sunart, forming two narro ...

is the last remaining part of a once huge

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

deer forest, river and grousemoor bought in 1870 by the three Newton brothers, T. H. Goodwin, William III, and

Canon Horace Newton Horace Newton (1844–1920) was a priest within the Church of England, philanthropist, and country landowner. Life He lived at the country house of Holmwood, Redditch, Worcestershire, which he had built for him in 1892–3 by Temple Lushington ...

Barrells Hall Barrells Hall is a large house in the Warwickshire countryside near Henley-in-Arden. The nearest village is Ullenhall, which for many years was the estate village, large parts of it having been built by the owners of Barrells Hall, the Newtons, on ...

and

Holmwood, Redditch Holmwood House in Redditch, Worcestershire, is a country by the famed Victorian architect Temple Lushington Moore, who was a vague relative of the Newton family. Rev Canon Newton was brother of Goodwin Newton of Barrells Hall, where Canon Newto ...

, ancestors of the current family, who are also of direct Milward's Needles descent.

History

The Glencripesdale Estate once stretched for along the entire south side of Loch Sunart, and the entire east side of

Loch Teacuis Loch Sunart (Scottish Gaelic ) is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland. Loch Sunart is bounded to the north by the Sunart district of Ardnamurchan and to the south by the Morvern district. At long, it is the longest sea loch in the Highland ...

. The estate comprised the estates of Glencripesdale, Liddesdale and Laudale (16,000 acres) and also Rahoy and Kinlochteacus (10,000 acres). The total estate measured , with waterside access to over of coastline. The highlight of the Estate was Glencripesdale House/Castle which was the mansion the

Newton Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film * Newton ( ...

brothers built to house their family and staff. During the three main months of Summer when the family were in occupation over 100 staff were employed locally running the estate covering its sporting side, Yachts and land and property management. In 1904 the estate had 9,000 sheep grazing its land, and had 4 separate working farms, with 2,500 deer in the forest. In the 1950s the Estate was put up for sale by the family, and sold for a distressed low price due to its vast size and the general worldwide economic downturn. After World War II, a new owner bought the House, and stripped its lead off the roof, leaving the buildings shell exposed, because he was able to sell the lead for more than he had bought the property for, according to local legend. The Isle of

at the mouth of Loch Sunart was bought back by the family from the sale, and still remains within the family as a monument to the once great estate. The last part of the Glencripesdale estate to be sold by the family was the Rahoy estate by Carna and Loch Teacus which was sold to the Colville's in the mid 1960s. The estate with the shell of the house was sold to the

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

next, which slowly planted up the woodland with

conifers Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extan ...

and then sold off the estate in chunks throughout the 1990s. The ruins still remain on the original site, however the land has become very overgrown.

References

{{coord, 56.668, -5.807, display=title, region:GB_scale:20000 Morvern Highland Estates