Description

Late 18th century. 2-storey, 3-bay, rectangular-plan, symmetrical tacksman's house. Harled, squared sandstone rubble.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 3 stone steps to central door; close-set regular fenestration, smaller wallhead-height windows to upper storey.

S (REAR) ELEVATION: irregular fenestration; two small windows to ground, single window to upper storey.

E (SIDE) ELEVATION: blank

W (SIDE) ELEVATION: blank, coped rubble wall abutting to outer left.

4-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slates, lead flashing, overhanging eaves with exposed rafters to gable ends, coped gable end stacks.

INTERIOR: not seen 2001.

Statement of Interest

Former tacksman's house on the shore of Loch Sunart, within the Laudale estate. Part of a group of similar houses in the Highlands of this period, a Georgian box first developed as the standard form for manses and quickly adopted for other purposes such as inns, customs houses and homes for the newly emerging Highland Highland middle class of tacksmen turned estate managers, farmers, lawyers and military officers. Tacksmen had been the regional chiefs of the Highland chieftains acting as tenant and subletting and as military lieutenants. After 1745 and the onset of the first clearances the traditional role of the tacksmen was lost with many leading emigrating groups to America and Canada. Those who remained were often those closest to the chief, or landowner as they had then become, and found themselves with considerably more wealth and status as tenants of large and profitable farms.

Listed as representative of a disappearing and historically important legacy of the history of the Highlands.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17828068

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)