Lochnell Castle

Lochnell Castle - Photo ©
Jo Turner, 13 June 2010

Lochnell Castle incorporates work of four main periods ranging in date from about the end of the 17th century to about the end of the 19th century. The late 17th century house is now represented only by a service-wing, which forms the SW range of the present building, but a main block of contemporary, or of earlier date must formerly have occupied the NE portion of the site. In about 1737-9 the house was altered and enlarged by the erection of a new dwelling-house to the SE of this earlier main block. Between about 1818 and 1820 the house was again remodelled, the early NE main block being removed and its site utilised for the erection of a substantial mansion in the castellated style, to which the SW service-wing and the early Georgian dwelling-house formed flanking appendages. At the same time a court of offices, also in the castellated style, was constructed on the NW side of the house, and the SW service wing was extended in length. In 1853 the greater part of the house was gutted by fire, and the building appears to have remained unoccupied until towards the end of the century, when the early Georgian dwelling-house and the SW service-wing were restored. Of the late Georgian mansion, however, only the NE portion was reoccupied, the remainder being patched up and allowed to remain as a roofless shell. There is an 18th or early 19th century ice-house about 50m to the S of the house.
H B Millar and J Kirkhope 1964