Castle House | |
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General information | |
Town or city | Dunoon, Argyll and Bute |
Country | Scotland |
Coordinates | 55°56′46″N4°55′28″W / 55.946187°N 4.924443°W |
Completed | 1822 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | David Hamilton |
Castle House is situated in the Scottish town of Dunoon, Argyll and Bute. It sits on top of a promontory called Castle Hill, between West Bay and East Bay, overlooking Dunoon Pier and the Firth of Clyde. It was built in 1822, and designed by David Hamilton. It is a Category B listed structure. [1]
The house was built for James Ewing of Strathleven. Ewing was a merchant and slave owner and was described by biographer Stephen Mullen as "among the most financially successful of [Glasgow's] élite nineteenth-century sugar/slavery aristocracy". He used the profits from his business to buy and establish property across London. [2] The house was designed by architect David Hamilton who also designed Castle Toward and Hutchesons' Hospital. [3]
Dunoon Town Council purchased the house, for £4,600, [4] in 1893 and used it to house the Council Chamber and Tulloch Free Library. [1]
The flag post on Castle Hill marks the original site of a 13th-century Dunoon Castle. [5]
The building has been home to Castle House Museum since 1998. It is run by Dunoon & Cowal Heritage Trust. [5]
Great Cumbrae is the larger of the two islands known as The Cumbraes in the lower Firth of Clyde in western Scotland. The island is sometimes called Millport, after its main town.
Hamilton is a large town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It sits 10 miles (16 km) south-east of Glasgow, 37 miles (60 km) south-west of Edinburgh and 74 miles (120 km) north of Carlisle. It is situated on the south bank of the River Clyde at its confluence with the Avon Water. Hamilton is the county town of the historic county of Lanarkshire and is the location of the headquarters of the modern local authority of South Lanarkshire.
Dunoon is the main town on the Cowal Peninsula in the south of Argyll and Bute, west of Scotland. It is located on the western shore of the upper Firth of Clyde, to the south of the Holy Loch and to the north of Innellan. As well as forming part of the council area of Argyll and Bute, Dunoon also has its own community council. Dunoon was a burgh until 1976.
Greenock is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms part of a contiguous urban area with Gourock to the west and Port Glasgow to the east.
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Gourock is a town in the Inverclyde council area and formerly a burgh of the County of Renfrew in the west of Scotland. It was a seaside resort on the East shore of the upper Firth of Clyde. Its main function today is as a residential area, extending contiguously from Greenock, with a railway terminus and ferry services across the Clyde.
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Wemyss Bay is a village on the coast of the Firth of Clyde in Inverclyde in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is in the traditional county of Renfrewshire. It is adjacent to Skelmorlie, North Ayrshire. The town and villages have always been in separate counties, divided by the Kelly Burn.
Hamilton Palace was a country house in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was the seat of the Dukes of Hamilton and is widely acknowledged as having been one of the grandest houses in the British Isles. The palace dated from the 14th century, was rebuilt in the Baroque style between 1684 and 1701 and was subsequently much enlarged in the Neoclassical style between 1824 and 1832.
James Gillespie Graham was a Scottish architect, prominent in the early 19th century.
The Glasgow Necropolis is a Victorian cemetery in Glasgow, Scotland. It is on a low but very prominent hill to the east of Glasgow Cathedral. Fifty thousand individuals have been buried here. Typical for the period, only a small percentage are named on monuments and not every grave has a stone. Approximately 3,500 monuments exist here.
John James StevensonFRSE FSA FRIBA, usually referred to as J. J. Stevenson, was a British architect of the late-Victorian era. Born in Glasgow, he worked in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London. He is particularly associated with the British Queen Anne revival style.
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The architecture of Scotland includes all human building within the modern borders of Scotland, from the Neolithic era to the present day. The earliest surviving houses go back around 9500 years, and the first villages 6000 years: Skara Brae on the Mainland of Orkney being the earliest preserved example in Europe. Crannogs, roundhouses, each built on an artificial island, date from the Bronze Age and stone buildings called Atlantic roundhouses and larger earthwork hill forts from the Iron Age. The arrival of the Romans from about 71 AD led to the creation of forts like that at Trimontium, and a continuous fortification between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde known as the Antonine Wall, built in the second century AD. Beyond Roman influence, there is evidence of wheelhouses and underground souterrains. After the departure of the Romans there were a series of nucleated hill forts, often utilising major geographical features, as at Dunadd and Dunbarton.
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James Ewing of Strathleven MP FRSE LLD (1775–1853) was Lord Provost of Glasgow (1832–1833), and MP for Glasgow (1832–1835), a plantation owner, slave-holder and West Indies merchant.
McColl's Hotel was a hotel in Dunoon, Cowal, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It stood, on Tom-a-Mhoid Road in the town's West Bay, adjacent to Castle Hill and the steamboat pier, between 1883 and 2015, when it was demolished. During its first century in operation, it was recognised as a desirable destination for tourists visiting the town, especially by steamboat. In 1910, it was listed in the World's Hotel Blue Book and Who's Who in the Hotel World, along with Dunoon's Argyll Hotel, Crown Hotel and Royal Hotel. While the Argyll was described as Dunoon's largest hotel, McColl's was noted as being its most select due to having its own grounds.