stirling-1963-vol-2/01_015

Transcription

INVENTORY
of the Ancient and Historical Monuments
of Stirlingshire (continued)

GARRISON

225. The Garrison, Inversnaid. The remains of the
Barrack of Inversnaid stand on a small eminence about
250 yds. NE. of the confluence of the Arklet Water and
the Snaid Burn. The Barrack, with those at Kiliwhimen
(Fort Augustus), Bernera and Ruthven, was erected in
the years following the rebellion of 1715 as part of the
Government's plan for controlling the Highlands. The
site commands the pass between Loch Lomond and
Loch Katrine, and the primary function of the post
was to protect the route that ran from Dumbarton via
Loch Lomond, Loch Katrine and Loch Tay to join the
main Dunkeld-Inverness road at Blair Atholl (cf. No.
523). The Barrack is placed to overlook two fords - those
by which, respectively, the Dumbarton road crosses the
Arklet Water (cf. No. 521) and the road from Inversnaid
Harbour crosses the Snaid Burn (cf. No. 522) before
joining the Dumbarton road 80 yds. SW. of the Garrison
(Pl. 117).
Sites for all four Barracks were agreed upon in August
1717, ¹ the Board of Ordnance being responsible for their
erection and maintenance. Early in the following year
James Smith was appointed "Surveyor and Chief
Director for Carrying on the Barracks" in North Britain,
and at the same time Major Thomas Gordon was made
Chief Overseer, under Smith, at Inversnaid, with
Lieutenants Dumaresque and Bastide as Clerk of Works
and Draughtsman respectively, ² Work began in the
spring of 1718 and was continued throughout the summer
and autumn, although not without interruption; there
is a report of a party of eight masons and quarriers being
carried off by armed Highlanders on 8th August. ³
Building contracts were signed on 14th June, ⁴ the
principal contractors being Gilbert Smith, mason, Robert
Mowbray, carpenter, and James Syme, slater, all of
whom were also engaged upon the Barrack of Kili-
whimen. Work stopped in late autumn but was resumed
in the spring of 1719, although in January Smith was
replaced by Andrews Jelfe, ⁵ who is described as
"Architect and Clerk of the Works for this office in
Great Brittain". ⁶ By the autumn of 1719 the buildings
were approaching completion, Inversnaid being the first
of the four Barracks to be finished.
The Barrack is said to have been destroyed during the
rebellion of 1745 ⁷ and then rebuilt, but, although plans
were made for new buildings at this time, 8 they were not
carried out and the structure seen today is that erected in
1718 and 1719. The Garrison was kept in repair until
the late 18th century, but a survey of 1823 stated that it
was becoming ruinous, the only occupants at that time
being two women, one of whom kept "a kind of inn" in
one of the barrack blocks. 9 Neither the Engineer Depart-
ment nor the Barrack Department would admit
responsibility for the buildings, and as the site had by
that time lost its military significance it was handed back
to the Duke of Montrose.
Contemporary plans of the Barrack survive (Pls. 117,
118) [Footnote] 10 and show it as an approximately square enclosure,
on the N. and S. sides of which two barrack-blocks faced
each other across a courtyard. The W. and E. sides were
provided with rampart walks carried on vaulted under-
crofts and the entrance was centrally placed in the W.
wall. At the NE. and SW. angles of the enclosure towers
of two storeys gave flanking fire to the four main walls,
the ground floor of the NE. tower being used as a bake-
house and brew-house and that of the SW. tower as a
guard-room. Loop-holes were also provided in the rear
walls of the barrack-blocks and in the vaulted chambers
that supported the rampart walks. Provision was made
in the plan for towers at the remaining two corners of
the enclosure and for the strengthening of the entrance,
but there was insufficient money to complete these
additional works. The plan as carried out should be
compared with those of Kiliwhimen, Ruthven and
Bernera, [Footnote] 11 all four Barracks being very much alike;
Kiliwhimen and Bernera were slightly larger than Inver-
snaid, and had more subtantial barrack-blocks, but
Ruthven provides an almost exact parallel. Credit for
these Barracks has been given to J. L. Romer, [Footnote] 12 whose
father William Romer had achieved some fame as an
expert in the art of fortification; Romer, however,

1 P.R.O., W.O. 47/30, 228-9.
2 Ibid., 47/31, 57.
3 Ibid., 235.
4 E.g. Ibid., 48/60, list dated June 28, 1720, No. 35.
5 On whom see Colvin, English Architects, 318.
6 P.R.O., W.O. 47/32, 21.
7 Stat. Acct., ix (1793), 25.
8 B.M. (Map Room), K. Top. L. 100.
9. P.R.O., W.O. 44/272.
10 National Library of Scotland MS. 1648, Z 3/11, Z 3/16,
Z 3/17, Z 3/18. Of these plans, Z 3/17e (Pl. 118) appears to be
a preliminary draft, Z 3/17a to incorporate some minor modi-
fications of the original scheme, and Z 3/11a to represent the
work actually carried out.
11 National Library of Scotland MS. 1648, Z 3/18.
12 Colvin, English Architects, 513, following D.N.B.

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