Game Larder, Ardverikie House

Game Larder, Ardverikie House

This is a listed building on the Grade A (highest) list, encompassing the main mansion house, outbuildings, game larders, boathouse and walled garden at Ardverikie, on the shores of Loch Laggan.

The Principal Mansion House

The main house is a large, irregularly planned baronial mansion of 2 and 3 storeys, designed by architect John Rhind of Inverness and built between 1873 and 1878. It probably incorporates fragments of an earlier shooting lodge destroyed by fire. A datestone on the tower records "Burnt 1873 Rebuilt 1874 Finished 1878".

The building is constructed of grey granite rubble with contrasting tooled ashlar dressings, and presents a varied gabled roofline with multiple gabled bays terminating in circular and octagonal turrets with boldly corbelled conical roofs. The south front follows an L-plan, featuring a round-headed entrance within a 2-storey projecting gabled porch with corbelled detailing over the ground floor. The 1st floor is bipartite with a crest above, and the entrance is marked by a panelled double leaf door. The west garden front is a gabled composition of four bays with projecting canted outer bays, and incorporates a 5-storey square tower set back to the north. Off-centre to this front is an entrance within a 3-arched loggia with a crenellated balcony above. The corbelled turret is set back at the re-entrant angle, with a further set-back turret at the south. Upper elevations feature crenellated parapets, crowstepped and brattished caphouses, and there are 2-storey wings to the north and south, with the southern wing possibly part of the earlier house.

Windows are predominantly 1, 2, 3 or 4-light mullioned designs with 2-pane glazing and decorative cast-iron finials. Wooden gable apex finials, coped end and ridge stacks, and slate roofs complete the external detailing. A walled service court at the east is entered through a round-headed archway.

Interior Decoration

The interior is richly decorated in Neo-Jacobean style. The inner stair hall features inset low-relief panels depicting sporting artifacts, with a wide wooden staircase equipped with a carved balustrade and square finalled newels.

The drawing room contains a carved marble chimney-piece with mirrored overmantel, panelled dado, and panelled double doors with broken pedimented doorpieces. The plaster ceiling features strapwork decoration.

The library is panelled throughout, with a carved wooden chimney-piece and overmantel flanked by caryatids. An inglenook is screened by a round-headed arch supported by a pair of fluted Corinthian columns, and bookshelves are delineated by barley-sugar clustered colonettes.

The dining room features an ornate variegated marble chimney-piece with heavy carved wooden overmantel framing a portrait. It is panelled to cornice height with an arcaded plasterwork cornice.

The billiard room is panelled with built-in bookshelves.

Outer Service Court and Outbuildings

The walled service court at the east is partially enclosed by single-storey outbuildings and a single-storey and loft helm-roofed boathouse/garages block. A detached single-storey and loft symmetrical game larder with gabled centrepiece and tall slated ridge fleche is also present within this court. Further to the north of the house by the loch-side stands a detached square game larder with louvered walls and pyramidal louvered roof on a mound.

To the north lies a small rubble L-plan boathouse with double doors to a loch inlet (now dried up), featuring a coped end stack and slate roof.

Walled Garden

The walled garden comprises coped rubble walls with shallow buttresses at regular intervals. An arched entrance lies beneath a stepped coped overthrow bearing a monogram and dated 1939.

Historical Context

The estate was originally developed as a shooting lodge, built by the Marquis of Abercorn around 1836, which was destroyed by fire in 1873. The present mansion was erected by Sir John Ramsden, who purchased the Ardverikie Estate in 1872. A portion of the southern wing may date from the original 1836 structure. The building commands a prominent site on Loch Lagganside. Scant remains of a castle stand on an islet close by.