Status Fire Damaged, Ruin Town or city Dunans Estate | Type Mock Castle Phone +44 1369 510511 | |
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Location Glen Daruel, Cowal Peninsula, Argyll and Bute Country Scotland, United Kingdom Coordinates , National grid reference NS 04064 91102 Address Dunans, Glendaruel PA22 3AD, UK Similar Achallader Castle, Tarbert Castle, Old Castle Lachlan, Duntrune Castle, Carrick Castle | ||
Milling about at dunans castle argyll
Dunans Castle; is a historic structure located in Glendaruel, on the Cowal peninsula, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The property is owned by Charles and Sadie Dixon-Spain. A property at Dounens was shown on maps in 1590; Dunans House was elaborated into its present mock castle form in 1864. Once part of a much larger estate the property presently includes 16 acres (65,000 m2) of ground and in 2001 was ruined by fire.
Contents
Dunans castle flythrough
History
For over two centuries Dunans was home to the Fletcher Clan who moved to the site between 1715 and 1745 carrying with them the door of their previous home at Achallader Castle (the door was used for the private chapel and was reported missing in 1999). The original mansion-style house (to the left in the picture) was extended into its present dramatic Franco-baronial "castle" form by the architect Andrew Kerr with the additions consisting of four main apartments and 6 bedrooms. The building passed out of Fletcher hands in 1997 when the entire 3000 acre Dunans estate was sold off by Colonel Archibald Fletcher's heirs and subsequently split up. Following a number of financial problems, the Category B listed castle was gutted by fire on 14 January 2001 while being run as a hotel and the building was left as a ruin. The fire began in the attic space of the castle section and destroyed three floors with only the pre Victorian west wing surviving undamaged. The owner Ewa Lucas-Gardener had ignored fire safety experts warnings that the building's fireplaces were unsafe and abandoned the building after the insurers refused to pay out. Now under new ownership, the site, including a Victorian path network, has undergone some restoration supported by the Dunans Charitable Trust. The castle was reported to have three resident ghosts.
Present day
Dunans Castle Limited, which runs the ScottishLaird.com website, published the Conservation Plan for Dunans in April 2014. Written by conservation architect Robin Kent, the book outlines the programme for the restoration of the castle and the bridge.
The regional blog ForArgyll.com is run from the site as is the Walking Theatre Company. The building remains in the at risk category of the buildings at risk register and is described as being in very poor condition.
Bridge and mausoleum
Leading to the castle is Dunans Bridge, an A-listed structure, designed by Thomas Telford in 1815 and constructed to commemorate the battle of Waterloo by John Fletcher.
Once part of the Dunans estate, but still in the ownership of the Fletchers is the Fletcher of Dunans Mausoleum, a grade C listed structure located in the gardens of the neighbouring Stronardron house.
Further buildings once part of the estate but now privately owned include Dunans Lodge, the original gate house to the estate and Dunans Cottage, 2 workers cottages combined into one dwelling.
Scottish laird scheme
The current owners operate a scheme where individuals can be given or can purchase "Laird or Lady packages" which purport to entitle them to "own" a square foot of land in the grounds of Dunans Castle in Scotland and use the decorative title "Laird". Some of the packages include headed note paper and email addresses calling them a laird or lady of Dunans. The profits, from the sale of these packages, are used to restore this private property. Though several websites, and internet vendors on websites like eBay, sell these and other Scottish Lairdships along with small plots of land, the Court of the Lord Lyon considers these particular titles to be meaningless because it is impossible to have numerous "Lairds" of a single Estate at the same time. Additionally the Scottish Land Register does not recognise individual ownerships of such small plots.