Papers of the Ardlamont Estate, Kilfinan, Argyll & Bute, Scotland

Archive Collection

For more information, email the repository
Advice on accessing these materials
Cite this description
Bookmark:http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb248-ugd031/1/1

This material is held at
Reference
Dates of Creation
Name of Creator
Language of Material
Physical Description

Scope and Content

Financial records 1896-1903;
Legal records 1834-1838;
Administrative records 1881-1804;
Feu records 1896-1901;
Kames Farm, records 1881-1903;
Kildavaig Farm records 1881-1913;
Archagoyle Farm records 1883-1900;
Kilbride Farm records 1884-1903;
Craig Cottage records 1850-1897;
Point Farm records 1880-1897;
Shallaig Farm records 1879-1903.

Administrative / Biographical History

The Ardlamont Estate lies in the parish of Kilfinan, Argyll & Bute, Scotland. Ardlamont House is a Georgian estate house which was built around 1820 for Major General John Lamont, 19th of Lamont. The estate also consisted of a number of small farms and cottages.

Ardlamont House became the ancestral home of the Lamont Clan following the Toward Massacre in 1646, when 200 Lamonts were slaughtered despite having been given assurances of safe-conduct by their arch-enemies the Campbells. In 1893 Ardlamont Estate became infamous in a murder trial which gripped the nation. On 10 August 1893 a wealthy young aristocrat Cecil Hambrough died while out shooting with his tutor, Alfred George Monson. One of the witnesses at the trial was Dr Joseph Bell, the eminent Edinburgh surgeon and forensic scientist who became the prototype for Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Despite Bell's evidence Monson was acquitted on a 'Not Proven' verdict and later went onto to sue Madam Tussauds for erecting an effigy of him at the entrance to their Chamber of Horrors.

Nowadays the Ardlamont Estate has been opened up to the public. Guests can relax in refurbished cottages which are now holiday lets or hire Ardlamont House itself for weddings, shooting and hunting parties and other functions. Film and video crews also regularly hire the estate to film the historical buildings and the surroundings.