HIGHLAND PLANNED VILLAGES : THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE BRITISH FISHERIES SOCIETY Daniel Maudlin A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2002 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14485 This item is protected by original copyright Highland Planned Villages: The Architecture of the British Fisheries Society PhD thesis: Daniel Maudlin Submitted: 23rd January 2002 ProQuest Number: 10171028 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10171028 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT The British Fisheries Society, founded in 1786, was a semi-charitable joint stock com­ pany, similar to other improvement trusts of the period established to fund the construction of roads, bridges, canals and hospitals. The Society was however unique in the breadth of its ambition to create a chain of complete settlements or villages the length of the northern Scottish coastline from Dornoch on the east to Oban on the west. These new settlements were intended to be fishing stations focussed on the perceived wealth to be gained from the herring fishery. Four settlements were established at Ullapool, Wester Ross, Tobermory, Mull, Lochbay, Skye and Pulteneytown, Wick, Caithness and the specific intention of this thesis has been to examine those four built environments created by the Society. This in­ cludes all elements of the building and design process necessary to "create’ a fishing village incorporating town planning, civil engineering, industrial and vernacular buildings as well as ‘architecture’ by Robert Mylne and Telford. The construction of each village is followed from the design of the street plan, contracting for works through to the design and con­ struction of diverse works such as inns, storehouses, harbours and bridges. Varying cir­ cumstance resulting in each settlement developing its own architectural character despite the Society’s standardised plans and policies The settlements are also considered within the wider context of planned villages, New Towns ports, and harbours with specific analysis of individual buildings and types such as Robert Mylne’s inn at Tobermory. I, Daniel Maudlin, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 80,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree . 8 ... tV date signature of candidate I was admitted as a research student in September 1997 and as a candidate for the deg ee of PhD in September 1998; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St. Andrews between 1997 and 2001. date signature of candidate I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St. Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit the thesis in application for that degree. date signature of supervisor In submitting this thesis to the University of St. Andrews I understand that I am giving permission fpr it to be made available for use in accordance with the Regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker U date signature of candidate CONTENTS Abbreviations Introduction: Nothing North of Dornoch 1 1. The British Fisheries Society and the Age of Improvement 7 2. Neat a»nd Regular: Town Plans 16 3. UllapQol 64 4. Toberpiory 97 5. Lochhay 132 6. Pulteneytown 162 7. Solid pnd Substantial: 191 An Assessment of the Society’s Building Programme 8. Molehills: Settlers Domestic Buildings 195 Conclusion 216 Bibliography 222 Appendix 228 ABBREVATIONS AHSS Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland BFS British Fisheries Society MMA Mull Museum Archive NAS National Archives of Scotland (formerly SRO) NLS National Library of Scotland NMRS National Monuments Record of Scotland OS Ordinance Survey RCAHMS Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects RIAS Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland SAHGJ3 Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain SPCK Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge SRO Scottish Records Office SVBWG Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group INTRODUCTION 'Nothing North of Dornoch’ A defining characteristic of the Highlands of Scotland is the juxtaposition of the moun­ tainous landspape and the small ordered villages of white rendered or plain stone cottages that line the arterial roads crossing the straths, glens and loch shores. There is a visible austerity and often poverty of aspect often disappointing to the visitor looking for the village green and twisting lanes that can be found in areas such as the English Lake District. The Highlands do not have the established history of comfortable village life found else­ where in Britain and until the late eighteenth century was still considered a wild hinterland, feared by gepteel society and inhabited by ravaging war lords and impoverished subsist­ ence farmers. The villages of the Highlands that exist today did not gradually evolve but appeared suddenly in the hundred years between 1750 and 1850, and for the most part were brought to and imposed on the Highlands and Highlanders for economic reasons.1 The beauty of the scenery can detract from the fact that Highland villages were generally planned and built as functional places to house workers. In this respect comparisons should be drawn with the colonial settlements of North America and the planned industrial vil­ lages of Lanarkshire or Lancashire. 1 Introduction [If tp] the great line of coast on the main land of the Highlands, is to be added the circumference of the principle Hebride Islands...there is only the small town of Stornoway in the Hebrides and the inconsiderable places called Thurso, Wick and Dorpoch on the East side of the mainland, being only one town or rather village to every two hundred and fifty miles.2 Political economist John Knox in a report to the Highland Society in 1786. Yet by 1830 planned villages could be found throughout the Highlands; T C Smout estimated in 1970 that some 150 planned villages were established across Scotland be­ tween 1750 and 1800.3 Whilst Robert Naismith in his 1989 book, Buildings of the Scottish Countryside, put this figure nearer to 200.4 Nic Allen’s 1989 article, Highland Planned Villages, lists? 39 planned villages founded between 1750 and 1830 within the Highland region.5 In the most recent study of the subject Douglas Lockhart has put the total closer to 500 throughput Scotland and many more in the Highlands.6 Of course, that is not say that human settlement did not exist throughout the Highlands, made up of hundreds of scat­ tered, irregular subsistence communities. Knox continued in his paper that, “the number of people throughout the whole coast, including the isles may amount to two hundred thousand or two hundred for each mile, besides 100,000 inhabiting the glens and interior parts of the mainland”. This was the age of improvement, of the Georgian New Towns, and to Knox thesp settlements did not count. To him, and the general consensus of the period, the Highlands represented a vast area of Britain where there were no towns, being ordered places of stope houses and streets, and this was to be lamented as “nature hath pointed out, in striking characters...the advantages that would arise to manufactures and commerce from the establishment of a thriving, populous colony in these extreme parts of our island”. Knox, vyriting at the end of the eighteenth century, saw the development of all towns as the key to Britain’s future prosperity. Today despite them being a product of the same cultural movement an academic gulf exists in architectural history between the study of the great Georgian towns such as Edinburgh and Bath, their streets and architecture, and the smaller planned villages of the same period. The former have long been beloved by archi­ 2 Introduction tectural historians, generating innumerable books and articles whereas the study of the latter has remained largely ignored by architectural historians, with the odd exception such as William Adam at Inveraray. It has fallen to other historical disciplines such as geogra­ phy, economic and social history to shed light on the subject. The principal source remains T C Smout’s article in which he established the principle that planned villages were for the most part founded by landowners for the purpose of encouraging industry upon their estate. Smouf, chiefly an economic and social historian, divided planned villages into four categories according to the type of industry intended, viz. agriculture, the fisheries, villages with small rural industiy and factory villages. This has proved a useful system in under­ standing the economic logic behind the geographic spread of Scottish planned villages, i.e.