Colonsay House | |
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General information | |
Location | Colonsay |
Country | Scotland |
Coordinates | 56°5′35″N6°11′22″W / 56.09306°N 6.18944°W |
Construction started | 1722 |
Listed Building – Category B | |
Designated | 20 July 1971 |
Reference no. | LB5082 |
Colonsay House is a Georgian country house on the island of Colonsay, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. It is a Category B listed building, and is now in the ownership of the Barons Strathcona. [1] The gardens are open to the public on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons between April and October, and are listed on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of historic gardens. [2]
The central part of the house was built by the McNeill family in 1722. It is a medium-sized Georgian country house on the island of Colonsay, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It is often said in twentieth-century sources to have been built on the site of an earlier abbey, but there is no evidence in any charter or list of Scottish monasteries of any abbey (or any other monastic foundation) having been here. Nor is there any mention in any medieval witness-list of a prior or abbot of Kiloran. We must regard the story as a fable, though the church (and the island as a whole) did belong to the abbey of Iona by at least the early thirteenth century, if not before.
This is the earliest Classical House in Argyll. It has been extended twice in between 1722 and the early 20th century. Since 1904 the house has been the property of the island's owners, the Barons Strathcona, and is currently occupied by the 5th Baron and his family. [3]
The house has a public rhododendron and woodland garden covering some 30 acres (12 hectares). Located centrally in the island of Colonsay, this informal woodland garden is famous for the outstanding collection of species and hybrid rhododendrons, and for unusual trees and shrubs sourced from all over the world from the 1930s. It is considered to be one of the finest rhododendron gardens in Scotland. [4]
As the climate is mild, it is possible to grow a large variety of plants, including subtropical and more tender plants. There are eucalyptus, myrtle, acacia, eucryphia and 50-foot-tall (15 m) magnolias dotted throughout the garden. Other plants include crinodendron, the dramatic flame red embothrium, gunnera and cordyline, giving the gardens a subtropical feel. In spring, paths are lined with Himalayan primula, bluebells and other wild flowers. The walled gardens and rolling lawns are more formal. A Dicksonia antarctica stands among lomatia, crinodendron and camellia. Abutilon, olearia and, later in the year, eucryphia, flower profusely alongside enormous Cupressus macrocarpa .
The island's mill used to stand in the spot which is now The Dell garden. An 8th-century cross (a hybrid phallic and early Christian form) from the abandoned village of Riasg Buidhe stands below the house. A focal point is the Lighthouse Garden, featuring the Fresnel lens from Islay. The Old Workshop cafe in the gardens was built for the 4th Lord Strathcona by his father around 1935.
Argyll and Bute is one of 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod. The administrative centre for the council area is in Lochgilphead at Kilmory Castle, a 19th-century Gothic Revival building and estate. The current council leader is Robin Currie, a councillor for Kintyre and the Islands.
The Inner Hebrides is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which experience a mild oceanic climate. The Inner Hebrides comprise 35 inhabited islands as well as 44 uninhabited islands with an area greater than 30 hectares. Skye, Mull, and Islay are the three largest, and also have the highest populations. The main commercial activities are tourism, crofting, fishing and whisky distilling. In modern times the Inner Hebrides have formed part of two separate local government jurisdictions, one to the north and the other to the south. Together, the islands have an area of about 4,130 km2 (1,594 sq mi), and had a population of 18,948 in 2011. The population density is therefore about 4.6 inhabitants per square kilometre.
Argyll, sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland.
Gigha or the Isle of Gigha is an island off the west coast of Kintyre in Scotland. The island forms part of Argyll and Bute and has a population of 163 people. The climate is mild with higher than average sunshine hours and the soils are fertile. The main settlement is Ardminish.
Oronsay, also sometimes spelt and pronounced Oransay by the local community, is a small tidal island south of Colonsay in the Scottish Inner Hebrides with an area of 543 hectares.
Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, of Mount Royal in the Province of Quebec and Dominion of Canada, and of Glencoe in the County of Argyll, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1900 for the Scottish-born Canadian financier and politician Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, with remainder in default of legitimate male issue to his only daughter, Margaret Charlotte. Smith had already been created Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, of Glencoe in the County of Argyll, and of Mount Royal in the Province of Quebec and Dominion of Canada, in 1897, with remainder to the legitimate male issue of his body. This title was also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
The Rinns of Islay is an area on the west of the island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.
Bodnant Garden is a National Trust property near Tal-y-Cafn, Conwy, Wales, overlooking the Conwy Valley towards the Carneddau mountains.
Clan Macfie is a Highlands Scottish Clan.
Nave Island lies to the north of Islay in the Inner Hebrides near the mouth of Loch Gruinart. It is uninhabited.
Hinba is an island in Scotland of uncertain location that was the site of a small monastery associated with the Columban church on Iona. Although a number of details are known about the monastery and its early superiors, and various anecdotes dating from the time of Columba of a mystical nature have survived, modern scholars are divided as to its whereabouts. The source of information about the island is Adomnán's late 7th-century Vita Columbae.
Colonsay is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, located north of Islay and south of Mull. The ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeil, it is in the council area of Argyll and Bute and has an area of 4,074 hectares. Aligned on a south-west to north-east axis, it measures 8 miles in length and reaches 3 mi (5 km) at its widest point.
Jura is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, adjacent to and northeast of Islay. With an area of 36,692 hectares (142 sq mi), and 196 inhabitants recorded in the 2011 census, Jura is more sparsely populated than Islay, and is one of the least densely populated islands of Scotland: in a list of the islands of Scotland ranked by size, Jura comes eighth, whereas by population it comes 31st. The island is mountainous, bare and largely infertile, covered by extensive areas of blanket bog.
Islay is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll just south west of Jura and around 40 kilometres north of the Northern Irish coast. The island's capital is Bowmore where the distinctive round Kilarrow Parish Church and a distillery are located. Port Ellen is the main port.
The Riasg Buidhe Cross is a cross standing in the gardens of Colonsay House on the Inner Hebridean island of Colonsay, Scotland. It takes its name from the now abandoned and ruined village of Riasg Buidhe, about 1+1⁄2 miles southeast of Colonsay House, where it was found in the nineteenth century.
The Chapel of St. Oran, was a chapel dedicated to Saint Oran at Kiloran located on the Inner Hebridean island of Colonsay, Scotland. It was located at grid reference NR39489678.
Loch an Sgoltaire is an impounding reservoir located on the Inner Hebridean island of Colonsay, Scotland. It is located at grid reference NR386972, northwest of Kiloran and is the main source of fresh water for the island. The concrete dam was constructed in 1982 and is 3.1 metres high.
The Ruvaal, Rhuvaal, or Rubh'a' Mhàil Lighthouse is a listed 19th-century lighthouse located at the north-eastern end of the island of Islay, in the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. The active lighthouse marks the northern approaches to the Sound of Islay, a narrow channel separating Islay from the adjacent island of Jura, and is one of the seven lighthouses operated by the Northern Lighthouse Board, which act as maritime aids to navigation on and around Islay.