argyll-1971/01-027

Transcription

EIGHTEENTH REPORT

include two major castles of the 13th and 14th centuries, Skipness and Tarbert, as well as a
fine tower-house at Saddell, which has affinities with a neighbouring group of towers situated
around the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Of the adjacent Cistercian monastery of Saddell little
now remains, but the present survey has brought to light an interesting series of parish
churches and dependent chapels evidently associated with the introduction of the parochial
system during the 12th and 13th centuries. Domestic architecture of the post-medieval period
is poorly represented in Kintyre, the only noteworthy buildings of this class being a group of
small lairds' houses and the Gothic Revival mansions of Torrisdale and Barr. Numerous minor
rural buildings and deserted townships of the 18th and early 19th centuries survive, however,
and some typical examples of these have been selected for inclusion, together with a number of
shieling sites. A considerable variety of engineering works have also been recorded, including
an 18th-century lighthouse, an early canal and a well-preserved water-mill, while the local
distilling industry has furnished examples both of urban distillery architecture and of an illicit
rural still.
8. The late medieval sculptured stones of Kintyre, of which the Campbeltown Cross is the
outstanding example, presented us with a special problem. Most of them had been illustrated
in the past, but the distinctive series of richly ornamented grave-slabs, effigies and free-
standing crosses to which they belong, and which are widely distributed throughout the West
Highlands and Islands, had never been comprehensively studied. Many of the carvings bear
inscriptions, and the decoration includes numerous representations of ships, weapons, tools,
domestic implements, liturgical instruments and other items in contemporary use. In these
circumstances it was felt that the brief descriptions of the individual stones given in the
Inventory ought to be supplemented by a definitive survey of the whole body of the material.
This project was accordingly entrusted to our Secretary, and has now been completed. His
report formed the subject for the Rhind Lectures in Archaeology given at the invitation of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1968, and it is proposed to issue it as a separate Corn-
mission publication.
9. We wish to acknowledge the assistance accorded to us, during the preparation of this
Inventory, by the owners and occupiers of ancient buildings and sites, and by parish ministers
throughout the region. Our thanks are due especially to Mr. Duncan Colville, J.P., whose
personal researches into the history and antiquities of Kintyre, and whose extensive collection
of local source material, have been placed unreservedly at our disposal. We are also indebted to
His Grace the Duke of Argyll, T.D., D.L., Mr. J. G. Scott, M.A., F.M.A., the Reverend
James Webb, the Kintyre Antiquarian Society, the General Manager of the Northern Light-
house Board, and Mr. E. McKiernan, librarian of the Campbeltown Public Library and
Museum, for access to, and information about, records or relics in their possession; to Mrs
K. M. Feachem, Lt.-Col. Sir James Horlick, Bt., O.B.E., M.C., the late Mr. C. A. M. Oakes of
Skipness and Mr. G. E. S. Dunlop for assistance with the field survey ; to the Cambridge Uni-
versity Committee for Aerial Photography for permission to reproduce air-photographs; to Sir
Thomas Innes of Learney and Kinnairdy, K.C.V.O., LL.D., formerly Lord Lyon King of
Arms, who kindly revised the heraldic matter in the Inventory; to Mr. J. W. M. Bannerman,
M.A., Ph.D., for help with the inscriptions on the late medieval carvings; to the Institute of

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