Kilmory Castle, also known as Kilmory House, is a large 19th century house located just to the south of

Lochgilphead Lochgilphead (; gd, Ceann Loch Gilb ) is a town and former burgh in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, United Kingdom, with a population of around 2,300 people. It is the administrative centre of Argyll and Bute. The village lies at the end of Loch Gi ...

, in old county

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 ...

, on the west coast of Scotland. It is currently occupied by the headquarters of the

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...

Council. The gardens are open to the public and form part of a country park on the former estate. The house is protected as a category B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

A house may have stood on the site as early as the 14th century. There was a church at Kilmory in ancient times, and in the 1550s the church and lands of Kilmory were held by the Abbot of Paisley. In 1575 the estate was owned by Donald Campbell of Kilmory, and remained in the Campbell family for over 250 years. The Campbells built a house, or extended the existing one, between 1816 and 1820. Eliza Campbell, the eldest daughter and co-heir of Peter Campbell, married

Sir John Orde, 2nd Baronet The Orde, later Campbell-Orde Baronetcy, of Morpeth in the County of Northumberland, is a title in the Baronetage of Great Britain. It was created on 9 August 1790 for the naval commander John Orde. He was the younger brother of Thomas Orde-Powl ...

in 1826. He purchased the estates following the death of his father-in-law in 1828 and of his wife in 1829. Orde demolished the modest old Campbell house and replaced it with a grand

Gothic-revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

mansion designed by architect Joseph Gordon Davis and completed in c. 1830. The core of the older house was retained, but was extended into an ‘L’-shaped plan, with new exterior and interior decoration, and a large octagonal tower at the south-west corner. Orde also greatly expanded and improved the grounds and estate, engaging William Hooker to extend the gardens in 1830. Further extensions were carried out to the rear in 1863. Orde was buried in the private burial ground adjacent to the house in 1878. His son succeeded to the

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 ...

cy, and changed his name to Campbell-Orde in 1880. The Campbell-Orde baronets retained the estate until 1938. In March 1949 an announcement was made that it would open in June as a national holiday centre for young people. In July 1971 it was designated a category B listed building. In 1974, Argyll County Council purchased the house to serve as a headquarters for

District Council, which was formed in 1975. In 1995 local government was reorganised again, although Kilmory remained in use as the headquarters of the new

unitary authority. An office block extension was built onto the house between 1980 and 1982, to increase the provision of space. Repairs had to carried out following a fire which damaged the west wing in 1984.

References

External links

* * {{cite web , title=Kilmory Woodland Park , website=Gardens of Argyll , place=UK , url=http://www.gardens-of-argyll.co.uk/gardens/kilmory-woodland-park.html , url-status=dead , access-date=2015-10-10 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070417224116/http://www.gardens-of-argyll.co.uk/gardens/kilmory-woodland-park.html , archive-date=2007-04-17 Castles in Argyll and Bute Category B listed buildings in Argyll and Bute Country houses in Argyll and Bute Lochgilphead