Ilt heritage
Beach house, Achnagowan bridge, Nos 1-6 Larachbeag and old laundry; Rose Cottage; Castle Cottage, Ardtornish mansion house and clock-tower; Boat-house at the head of Loch Aline; Achranich Smith’s barn; South Corrie farm steading; North Corry Farm house, steading, gateposts and courtyard wall; Nos 1-5 High Street, Lochaline; Kiel Church and house, Lochaline; Achnaha cottage and steading; Fiunary Old Manse; Glenmorvern cottage and walled garden; Mungosdail House; Stewart mausoleum, Killuntaig, Drimnin; St Columba’s R C Church, Drimnin, Dorlin cottage; Ferry house, Old Ardtornish steading; Inniebeg cottages; Ivy bridge, Kinlochaline; Achranich House and estate offices; Kilmalieu house, steading and barn.
A good example of why a building is selected as being suitable for listing, is Achleek, on the south shore of Loch Sunart within Laudale estate, described thus in HES’s list: ‘Achleek house. Late 18th century. Two-storey, threebay, rectangular-plan, symmetrical tacksman’s house. Harled, squared sandstone rubble.’
Part of a group of similar houses in the Highlands of this period, a Georgian box first developed as the standard form for manses and quickly adopted for other purposes such as inns, customs houses and homes for the newly emerging Highland middle-class of tacksmen turned estate managers, farmers, lawyers and military officers. Tacksmen had been the regional chiefs of the Highland chieftains acting as tenant and subletting and as military lieutenants.
After 1745 and the onset of the first clearances, the traditional role of the tacksmen was lost with many leading emigrating groups to America and Canada. Those who remained were often those closest to the chief, or landowner as they had then become, and found themselves with considerably more wealth and status as tenants of large and profitable farms. Listed as representative of a disappearing and historically important legacy of the history of the Highlands.
The highest and most isolated scheduled monument on the Morvern Peninsula is on the summit of a mountain between Loch Linnhe and Glen Tarbert. It consists of the remains of a campsite, constructed by soldiers of the Ordnance Survey early in the 19th century as part of the first triangulation of Scotland. It is situated near the summit of Creach Bheinn at around 2,740ft in open rocky grassland.
Such camps are often known as Colby Camps, named after the officer commanding the Ordnance Survey at the time. The nature of the instruments of the period, the need for very precise measurements and the exigencies of Scottish mountain weather frequently necessitated lengthy stays at high altitude (in one extreme case, three months) to complete the measurements required.
This survey programme laid the backbone of the mapping system that served Britain until recent advances in satellite and electronic distance measurement. The monument has the potential to provide valuable insight into the early efforts of scientific cartography, and the great importance that was attached to map-making at this time. Such survivals are rare.
If you are worried that an old building or an ancient site in your area is in danger of being altered, damaged or demolished on private or on public land, including state-owned forests, you can nominate it for inclusion in an HES or local list by getting in touch with the Historic Environment/conservation officer or archaeologist at Argyll and Bute or Highland Council or through PASTMAP. They may also be interested in any new information you might have about a historic building or archaeological site.