Castle House, Dunoon

Last updated

Castle House
Castle House Museum - geograph.org.uk - 838074.jpg
The castle and its gardens in 2008
Castle House, Dunoon
General information
Town or city Dunoon, Argyll and Bute
CountryScotland
Coordinates 55°56′46″N4°55′28″W / 55.946187°N 4.924443°W / 55.946187; -4.924443
Completed1822;201 years ago (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]

Contents

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 and used the profits to establish buy property across London. [2] It 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]

Current use

The building has been home to Castle House Museum since 1998. It is run by Dunoon & Cowal Heritage Trust. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamilton, South Lanarkshire</span> Town and administrative centre in Scotland

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunoon</span> Town in Scotland

Dunoon is the main town on the Cowal peninsula in the south of Argyll and Bute, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Square</span> Civic square in Glasgow, Scotland

George Square is the principal civic square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of six squares in the city centre, the others being Cathedral Square, St Andrew's Square, St Enoch Square, Royal Exchange Square, and Blythswood Square on Blythswood Hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenock</span> Town and administrative centre in Scotland

Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It forms part of a contiguous urban area with Gourock to the west and Port Glasgow to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bo'ness</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Borrowstounness is a town and former burgh and seaport on the south bank of the Firth of Forth in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Historically part of the county of West Lothian, it is a place within the Falkirk council area, 17 miles northwest of Edinburgh and 6+34 miles east of Falkirk. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, the population of the Bo'ness locality was 15,100.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dufftown</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Dufftown is a burgh in Moray, Scotland. While the town is part of the historic Mortlach parish, the town was established and laid out in the early 19th century as part of a planned new town settlement. The town has several listed 19th century buildings and serves as a regional centre for agriculture, tourism and services. The town is well known for its whisky based economy, as it produces more whisky than any other town in Scotland and is home to several existing and former distilleries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gourock</span> Coastal town in Inverclyde, Scotland

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glasgow Cathedral</span> Church in Glasgow, Scotland

Glasgow Cathedral is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest cathedral in mainland Scotland and the oldest building in Glasgow. The cathedral was the seat of the Archbishop of Glasgow, and the mother church of the Archdiocese of Glasgow and the Province of Glasgow, until the Scottish Reformation in the 16th century. Glasgow Cathedral and St Magnus Cathedral in Orkney are the only medieval cathedrals in Scotland to have survived the Reformation virtually intact. The medieval Bishop's Castle stood to the west of the cathedral until 1789.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wemyss Bay</span> Human settlement in Scotland

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamilton Palace</span> Grand house in South Lanarkshire, Scotland

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Gillespie Graham</span> Scottish architect (1776-1855)

James Gillespie Graham was a Scottish architect, prominent in the early 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of Edinburgh history</span> Timeline of history in Edinburgh, Scotland

This article is a timeline of the history of Edinburgh, Scotland, up to the present day. It traces its rise from an early hill fort and later royal residence to the bustling city and capital of Scotland that it is today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glasgow Necropolis</span> Victorian cemetery in Glasgow, Scotland

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castle Toward</span> Country house in Scotland

Castle Toward is a nineteenth-century country house in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of Scotland</span> Overview of the architecture of Scotland

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Henderson (architect)</span> Scottish architect (1804-1862)

John Henderson was a Scottish architect operational in the mid-19th century. He is chiefly remembered as a church architect, with his early work being in the Gothic revival and tractarian style, before developing his own distinct style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Campbell (Highland Mary)</span> Lover of Robert Burns

Mary Campbell, also known as Highland Mary, was the daughter of Archibald Campbell of Daling, a sailor in a revenue cutter, whose wife was Agnes Campbell of Achnamore or Auchamore. Mary was the eldest of a family of four. Robert Burns had an affair with her after he felt that he had been "deserted" by Jean Armour following her move to Paisley in March 1786. The brief affair started in April 1786, and the parting took place on 14 May of that year. Her pronunciation of English was heavily accented with Gaelic and this led to her becoming known as 'Highland Mary.'

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander MacFarlane (astronomer)</span> Scottish polymath (1702–1755)

Alexander MacFarlane was a Scottish polymath who was active as an astronomer, merchant, mathematician, judge, politician and planter. Born in Scotland, MacFarlane graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1728 and immigrated to the British colony of Jamaica, where he settled down to a career as a merchant and acquired several sugar plantations operated with slave labour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Ewing of Strathleven</span> MP for Glasgow (1775–1853)

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.

References

  1. 1 2 Castle House, Castle GardensHistoric Environment Scotland
  2. Mullen, Stephen (2016). "Ewing, James (1775–1853), West India merchant, slave owner, and civic leader" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53100 . Retrieved 7 October 2020.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. Scott, Ronald David (2005). The Cemetery and the City: The Origins of the Glasgow Necropolis, 1825-1857 (PhD). University of Glasgow. p. 26. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  4. Surveyor, Volume 33 (1908), p. 801
  5. 1 2 About Us – Castle House Museum official website