Ardbrecknish House (Ardbrechnish)
Photo by Sally Malkinson
Location: On the shore of Loch Awe stands the azalea-surrounded Ardbrecknish House (“Rockhill” in English) now turned into a hotel with its own website). Running up the south side of Loch Awe is Route B840. Two miles (3 km.) east of the junction where B840 road joins A819 stands Ardbrecknish House, now a self-catering accommodation.
Origin: Ardbrecknish House sits on an estate that long ago belonged to MacDougalls before it passed into the possession of a Campbell family through marriage. Records of its earliest period have not yet been found. Architectural historians suggest that the original Tower House was built as a mediaeval 15th C. “fortified house”.
A map by Pont in the Edinburgh University archive, dated 1590, clearly shows the West Tower already in place. In 1618 Duncan McArthur, feur of Ardbrecknish, gave a charter of the land to the Rector of Lochawe. The earliest title deeds are dated 1633. The original Ardbrecknish Tower House consisted of a tower block which is now the southwest corner West Tower of the Ardbrecknish House. In the 17th C. the first extension to the north of the West Tower completed the present three storey West Wing of Ardbrecknish House. Later eastward extensions of Ardbrechnish House were completed by the mid-19th C., the most recent being the three storey tower at the NE corner. By the mid-19th C. the West Tower and West Wing were being let as a shooting lodge for deer stalkers.
The house and the home farm, Rockhill (the English translation of Ardbrecknish) remained as one unit. Ardbrecknish House is the oldest surviving building still operational around the shores of Loch Awe. The house was converted into a hotel in 1930 and is popular with visitors to Loch Awe. In 2002 the British Record Brown Trout was landed from Loch Awe at Ardbrechnish. It weighed 31 pounds 10 ounces (14.4 kg.)!
Description: Ardbrecknish House today stands in 10 acres of woodland garden, together with the original one acre walled garden on the shore of Loch Awe and the jetty for the estate. The situation is beautiful. Especially from the top floor there is a grand view east and west along Loch Awe, and over the loch to the heights of Ben Cruachan. Today you can rent rooms in Ardbrecknish’s old West Tower which was the original fortified Tower House. This original portion of Ardbrecknish House is easily distinguished by its narrow, three-storied block, white with crow-stepped gable. Its many ells and chimneys are clues to past remodeling. When then owner James Thorp expanded Ardbrecknish his wife Anne MacDougall of Lunga insisted that her new home resemble her childhood home. The front of the house now has a resemblance to Lunga House in Craignish. The mid-19th C. three storey tower at the NE corner has a gabled saddleback summit which is corbelled from the round at the second floor.
Ardbrecknish House is steeped in traditions. Circa 1785 a spectral apparition was witnessed here in the old West Tower:
One summer hay harvest morning Alice Campbell and her friend Miss Lindsay were washing the breakfast dishes in the sink of the small kitchen on the ground floor of the old West Tower. They were startled by a sudden noise coming from the chimney of the fireplace recessed into the wall about 12 ft. (3.7 m.) behind them. They looked to see its cause. To their surprise they beheld two huge bloodhounds rise as if from the hearthstone, stretch themselves and then trot across the floor and out through the closed window to their left. The ladies were so astonished that they were silenced until Miss Lindsay could say:
“Sin coin Mhicdhùghaill is bi’dh feòil ‘g a reubadh”
(“These are Macdougall’s dogs, and flesh will be torn.”)
The vision known as a “taibh”, pronounced “ty”, was thought to be a warning. The ladies agreed to share their vision with as few as possible, “dreading danger to their friends”.
References:
1 – Technical information has been provided by the Canmore Database site of Historic Environment Scotland and their Ardbrecknish site may be visited at: https://canmore.org.uk/site/141050/ardbrecknish-house
2 – The Ardbrecknish Hotel website may be visited at: http://www.loch-awe.co.uk/
3 – Journeying in MacDougall Country by Walter M. Macdougall, Past President of the Clan MacDougall Society of North America on pages 70, 71 contains descriptions and notes on this site. This excellent book is available from Lulu.com with profits going to the Dunollie Preservation Fund from its book sales at http://www.lulu.com/shop/walter-macdougall/journeying-in-macdougall-country/paperback/product-2242050.html