Greenhouse, Kinnell House

GREENHOUSE, KINNELL HOUSE

This greenhouse forms part of the Kinnell House estate in Killin, a former seat of the Macnab clan. It is listed as part of a group that includes Kinnell House itself, its steading, ice house, and various gatepiers on the estate drives.

The greenhouse is a lean-to timber vinery structure set within the walled garden, positioned against the South-Eastern wall. It has been heavily restored in the late 20th century. The building retains only a few remnants of what was once a large Black Hamburg vine, which was brought to the estate from Auchlyne in 1832. The vine would have been trained along the interior of the glasshouse, taking advantage of the reflected heat from the wall behind.

The heating system for the vinery survives in part. Cast-iron heating equipment remains visible in one of the terraced lean-to rubble-built structures that run from the house to an arched opening in the garden wall on the opposite side. Although the resultant piping is no longer extant, this heating arrangement is unusual and represents an important surviving example of Victorian garden technology. The equipment would have circulated hot water to warm not only the vinery but possibly other walls of the walled garden as well.

The walled garden itself is of rectangular plan, built of high stone rubble walls with an arched opening in the South-Eastern wall. The terraced lean-to buildings attached to the inner face of these walls have slate roofs and rubble construction, creating a series of sheltered growing spaces typical of large 19th-century estates.