The Laird’s Houses of Scotland: From the Reformation to the Industrial Revolution, 1560–1770 Sabina Ross Strachan PhD by Research The University of Edinburgh 2008 Declaration I, the undersigned, declare that this thesis has been composed by me, the work is my own, and it has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification except for this degree of PhD by Research. Signed: ............................................................................ Date:................................... Sabina Ross Strachan Contents List of Figures ix List of Tables xvii Abstract xix Acknowledgements xxi List of Abbreviations xxiii Part I 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 3 1.1 Introduction 3 1.2 Context 3 1.2.1 The study of laird’s houses 3 1.2.2 High-status architecture in early modern Scotland 9 1.3 ‘The Laird’s Houses of Scotland’: aims 13 1.4 ‘The Laird’s Houses of Scotland’: scope and structure 17 1.4.1 Scope 17 1.4.2 Structure 19 1.5 Conclusion 22 Chapter 2 Literature Review 25 2.1 Introduction 25 2.2 An overview of laird’s houses 26 2.2.1 Dunbar, The Historic Architecture of Scotland, 1966 26 2.2.2 General surveys: MacGibbon & Ross (1887–92) and Tranter (1962) 28 2.2.3 Later commentators: 1992–2003 30 2.3 Regional, group and individual studies on laird’s houses 32 2.3.1 Regional surveys 32 2.3.2 Group studies 35 2.3.3 Individual studies 38 2.4 Conclusion 40 Chapter 3 Methodology 43 3.1 Introduction 43 3.2 Scope and general methodology 43 3.3 Defining the ‘laird’s house’ 47 3.3.1 What is a ‘laird’? 48 3.3.2 What is a ‘laird’s house’? 53 3.3.3 Categorising the laird’s house 55 3.3.3.1 Type I laird’s houses 56 3.3.3.2 Type II laird’s houses 59 3.3.4 What else can be a ‘laird’s house’? 63 3.3.5 What is a ‘laird’s house’ not? 66 3.4 The case-study areas 70 3.4.1 Choosing the case-study areas 70 vi CONTENTS 3.4.2 Compiling the gazetteer 76 3.4.2.1 Sources and fieldwork 76 3.4.2.2 Gazetteer layout 79 3.5 Conclusion 81 Chapter 4 The Laird’s Houses of Scotland: An Overview 85 4.1 Introduction 85 4.2 The historical context, 1560–1770 87 4.3 The origins of the ‘laird’s house’ 97 4.3.1 The tower-house 97 4.3.1.1 The tower and the hall 100 4.3.1.2 The tower-house and the ‘transitional’ laird’s house 104 4.3.2 The tenant’s house 106 4.3.3 Town houses 110 4.3.4 Early Scottish Country Houses 114 4.4 The Type I laird’s house 116 4.4.1 ‘Bastles’, ‘saalgeschosshauses’ or ‘laird’s houses’? 116 4.4.1.1 ‘Bastles’ 117 4.4.1.2 ‘Saalgeschosshauses’ 123 4.4.2 The characteristic Type I laird’s house… 127 4.4.2.1 …with first-floor halls 128 4.4.2.2 …with ground-floor halls 132 4.5 Type I to Type II: the demise of the hall 138 4.5.1 The low hall 139 4.5.2 The parlour 142 4.6 The Type II laird’s house 147 4.6.1 Gentleman architects and the English gentry house 148 4.6.2 The first Type II laird’s houses 151 4.6.3 The double-pile plan and pattern books 158 4.6.4 The characteristic Type II laird’s house 165 4.7 Conclusion 166 Part II 173 Chapter 5 The Scottish Borders: Early laird’s houses, 1560–1645 175 5.1 Introduction 175 5.2 Warfare and ‘reiving’ in the Scottish Borders 178 5.2.1 ‘Settled frontier society’ or ‘other borderland’? 178 5.2.2 After Flodden, and the ‘Rough Wooing’ (1513–51) 182 5.2.3 Feuing and the Reformation (c. 1500–1560s) 184 5.2.4 The Marian Civil War, Regent Morton and James VI (1567–1625) 187 5.3 Castles and tower-houses 190 5.3.1 Cessford and Cowdenknowes and the greater lairds 190 5.3.2 Smailholm and the lesser lairds 197 5.4 The early laird’s houses of the Scottish Borders 201 5.4.1 Bastles and pele-houses 201 5.4.1.1 Terminology 201 5.4.1.2 ‘Stronghouses’ 203 CONTENTS vii 5.4.1.3 ‘Pele-houses’ 206 5.4.1.4 Byre Function? 211 5.5 ‘Late bastles’ and early mansions 216 5.5.1 ‘Late bastles’: some rural examples 216 5.5.2 Early mansions 219 5.5.3 ‘Late Bastle’ or ‘Early Laird’s House’?: Old Gala House 221 5.6 Burghs and town houses 229 5.6.1 Lairds and their town houses 229 5.6.2 Towers 231 5.6.3 ‘Pended houses’ and ‘Queen Mary’s House’ 233 5.6.4 ‘Urban bastles’? 238 5.7 Border laird’s houses of the early 17th century 244 5.8 Conclusion 251 Chapter 6 Shetland: The development of the Type I laird’s house, 1589– 1730 255 6.1 Introduction 255 6.2 The study of Shetland laird’s houses 257 6.3 Lairds, landholding and trade in Shetland 259 6.3.1 The geography and medieval history of Shetland (1195–1472) 259 6.3.2 Odal tenure (1469–1633) 261 6.3.3 Scottish Immigration (1469–1615) 264 6.3.4 16th- and 17th-century trade 267 6.4 Castles, tower-houses and palaces 270 6.5 The first ‘laird’s houses’ in Shetland 276 6.5.1 The odaller’s house 276 6.5.2 Jarlshof, Phase I, c. 1589–c. 1609 278 6.5.3 ‘Jarlshof’ Phase II, c. 1609–c. 1636 and Phase III, c. 1636–c. 1690s 285 6.6 Laird’s houses, merchant’s houses and ‘böds’ 291 6.6.1 Terminology 292 6.6.2 An overview of böds 293 6.6.3 Laird’s houses of the mid-17th century 296 6.7 ‘Transitional’ laird’s houses: Type I to Type II 301 6.8 The Type II laird’s house in Shetland 308 6.8.1 Five-bay Type II laird’s houses 309 6.8.2 T-plan laird’s houses 311 6.8.3 The axial approach 313 6.8.4 ‘The Haa’ 317 6.9 Conclusion 319 Chapter 7 The Western Isles, Skye and the Small Isles: The development of the Type II laird’s house, 1670–1770 323 7.1 Introduction 323 7.2 Chiefs, tacksmen, landholding and Improvement 327 7.2.1 The geography and medieval history of the Western Isles, Skye and the Small Isles 327 7.2.2 Clanship and James VI’s Highland policies 329 7.2.3 Commercial Landlordism and the Restoration 332 viii CONTENTS 7.2.4 Jacobitism and Improvement 334 7.3 The evidence for early 17th-century laird’s houses 338 7.3.1 Hebridean castles 339 7.3.1.1 An early 17th-century laird’s house? Caisteal Camus 339 7.3.1.2 A late ‘hall’ building at Duntulm? 341 7.3.1.3 Dunvegan: post-Restoration architecture 344 7.3.1.4 Multiple residences: Kisimul 347 7.3.2 Tackman’s houses of the early 17th century 350 7.4 The evidence for late 17th-century laird’s houses 353 7.4.1 Unish House 353 7.4.2 Tackman’s houses of the late 17th century 359 7.4.2.1 The tacksman’s house at Monkstadt 359 7.4.2.2 The House of Armadale 362 7.5 Type II houses 366 7.5.1 The four-bay T-plan Ormiclate Castle 366 7.5.2 The five-bay Monkstadt House 372 7.5.3 Evidence for early three-bay laird’s houses 378 7.5.4 The ‘double-pile’ Raasay House 387 7.6 Conclusion 396 Part III 403 Chapter 8 Conclusion 405 8.1 Introduction 405 8.2 The study of laird’s houses 405 8.3 The definition of the laird’s house 408 8.4 The national overview and case-studies 414 8.4.1 Methodology 414 8.4.2 The national overview 416 8.4.2.1 The origins of the laird’s house 416 8.4.2.2 The development of the Type I laird’s house 419 8.4.2.3 The origins and development of the Type II laird’s house 421 8.4.3 The regional case-studies 423 8.5 Areas for further research 427 8.5.1 A national gazetteer 427 8.5.2 A research agenda 431 8.6 Conclusion 432 Appendix A The Scottish Borders gazetteer 435 Appendix B Shetland gazetteer 457 Appendix C The Western Isles, Skye and the Small Isles gazetteer 477 Appendix D Model for National Gazetteer 491 Glossary 495 Bibliography 507 List of Figures Figure 1.1: Case-study areas. Periods over which laird’s houses were built and periods covered by each chapter. 18 Figure 3.1: How the scope of the thesis developed. 44 Figure 3.2: A ‘typical’ Type I laird’s house. Jarlshof, Phase III, conjectural reconstruction. Drawing by S. Strachan. 58 Figure 3.3: A ‘typical’ Type II laird’s house. Udrigle House, Wester Ross, reconstruction drawing based on Wentworth & Sanders, 1996, 19, fig. 1. Drawing by S. Strachan. 61 Figure 3.4: The case-study areas: 1) The Scottish Borders; 2) Shetland; and 3) The Western Isles, Skye and the Small Isles.