Edinample Castle

Edinample Castle

Edinample Castle is a Z-plan tower house built in 1584, possibly incorporating earlier fabric. It occupies a prominent position near the head of Loch Earn and represents an excellent example of a late 16th-century design of this type. The building was internally remodelled around 1790 and underwent renovation between circa 1970 and 1998 by Peter Nicholson, Nicholas Groves-Raines, and Raymond Muszynski, working separately in succession.

The castle comprises a rectangular main block of three storeys with an attic gabled roof, flanked by roughly circular four-storey towers at the east and west corners. Circular bartizans corbelled out at the second floor occupy the north and south corners. Circular stair towers are corbelled out from the first floor at the north re-entrant angles of the two corner towers. Both the east and west towers are the same height, or slightly lower than the main block, though the rooms they contain have lower ceilings, accounting for the extra storey. Each tower has a broad, curved chimney stack that rises uninterrupted from the wallhead and appears to shelter the roof.

The east tower is flattened from the circular on its south-west elevation, where the front door is positioned. The door is set in a roll-moulded architrave with a gun loop to its right. Between the first and second floor windows above the door is an armorial panel depicting two stags rampant on either side of the arms of Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy. The fenestration is arranged in rather uneven bays, with window sizes varying considerably. Large windows, including one arched example, light the great hall on the first floor of the main block, whilst smaller windows serve the ground floor and towers. Most windows have roughly-dressed stone margins. The bartizans and towers have conical or half-conical roofs, and the chimney stacks are broad, located at the wallhead.

The building is constructed of harled random schist rubble with dressed margins, roofed with graded grey Scottish slates. Windows are predominantly 12- and 18-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows, with some 4-pane casements, all timber-boarded.

Interior

The front door opens into a small hall from which rises a broad turnpike stair to the first floor. Stairs to the upper floors are situated in the stair towers. The ground floor of the east tower contains a bottle dungeon, accessed from a small hole in the floor of the former guardroom on the first floor above. The dungeon contains a crudely cut stone bench and basin. The entire ground floor is barrel-vaulted and paved with flagstones. Two narrow secondary staircases rise from the ground floor, one of which is blocked and may be a relic of an earlier building.

A deep arched fireplace is located in the kitchen. The principal apartment on the first floor is the great hall, which features a roll-moulded fireplace and painted ceiling by Kenneth Johnson, who also painted ceilings in some other rooms. All other rooms contain simple roll-moulded fireplaces and timber-boarded doors.

Ancillary Buildings and Garden Features

A circa 1870 ancillary building stands nearby, comprising a five-bay, single-storey U-plan structure of corrugated iron with rendered stacks. It features a timber-boarded door in a lean-to porch, lying-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows, a corrugated-iron piended roof, and octagonal clay cans. It was probably built as an office.

A one-room bothy with a piended roof stands at the foot of the garden on the banks of the Ample Burn, constructed of random rubble with a slated roof, timber-boarded door, and two fixed-light windows. Random rubble garden walls extend to the east of the castle, with a retaining wall to the south.