September 2024

The second half of the month was extremely busy, with visitors from the USA and a community apple picking, juice squeezing and cider making project. It also marked the 66th birthday of yours truly, and in recognition of this the family provided a gift of this copy on canvas of an original painting which used to hang in Inverneill House.

The painting is a portrait of General Sir Archibald Campbell, a major historic figure and the founder of Inverneill House. The original hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. It was bequeathed by Mrs Campbell of Canna in 2006. She was the wife of John Lorne Campbell, the last of the Campbell family to own Inverneill House. After he inherited it, he sold the lands and estate to Peter Barclay Graham, Junior and this was recorded in the Sasine register on 24 September 1955 (Book & folio: 958/107). The last remnants of this sasine title are this year in the process of being sold off by the heirs of the late wife of Peter Graham, having been left untouched for many decades. John Lorne Campbell, a noted Gaelic scholar and friend of the author Compton Mackenzie (Monarch of the Glen, Whisky Galore, etc.) bought the island of Canna, which he later gave to the National Trust for Scotland. But it is General Sir Archibald Campbell, the founder of Inverneill House that is the most important historical figure, from both Scottish and American perspectives.. He is buried in Westminster Abbey alongside the composer, George Frederic Handel.

We have received lots of thank you cards from the scouts for their camp, and a lovely MP3 recording produced by the Oban group, which included some bagpipe playing. Much appreciated! Here are a couple of distant shots of the camp from the house and some of the cards.

August 2024

Early in the morning on 28th August, we spotted an extraordinary sight. A golden eagle was perched in the Sitka overlooking the back of the house and the area where the scouts had been learning first aid and car repairs just days before. Its piercing eyes, huge hooked beak and yellow talons were so clear to see. It stayed about five minutes then flew off over the burn. Hunger must have brought it so close to the house following the prolonged period of extreme wet weather. A neighbour reported a barn owl being temporarily stunned after flying into a window the night before, another predator very sensitive to wet weather.

The Argyll Scouts held their District Camp in the walled garden from 23-25th August 2024. We loved every minute of it and were given this wonderful gift. We will leave it to them to report on their camp, but will happily share any photographs that they are able to provide us with.

June 2024

A meeting took place on 26th June, 2024 in our home between representatives of Low Carbon and the Inverneill community. Angus and Sam did a great job fielding a barrage of questions, and stayed way beyond their planned time to make sure that everyone had been heard.

For me, living so close to where the wind turbines would be rotating, my overriding concern is what I would call visual tinnitus: a loss of ability to tune in to all the myriad movements of natural objects that characterise this unique natural environment. I mean everything from the approach of a storm, the sudden appearance of a shaft of sunlight, the jumping of a red squirrel from tree to tree, the darting flights of bats and swallows and the passage of flocks of wild swans and geese crossing over on their long migrations. Our eyes are drawn to movement: it is through this distraction that our minds construct our awareness of our surroundings. For all the advances made in screen-based technology, there is nothing money can buy that can replace the deep relaxation and happiness that comes from immersion in the sublime, ever changing natural world that here envelops you.

We will be hosting a meeting of the Inverneill community with representatives of the wind farm developer, Low Carbon at 8pm today, 26 June.

In preparation for the meeting, I came across these statistics on UK CO₂ emissions published by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero in February, 2024. In addition to proving a breakdown of the main contributors, there are also interesting comparisons with the emissions of other countries.

Toby Frostwick, whose parents purchased Inverneill House off the Colquhouns, has kindly sent me this old aerial photograph. He recalls that the white car belonged to the Colquhouns, so thinks the photograph dates from the 1970s.

May 2024

Kim Polley has just emailed me to tell me that her book about her Scottish ancestors, “The Chisholm Letters: The Tale of a Town Scavenger” can now be purchased online. She is bringing a few copies to the UK.

We are well into the visitor season, when people come from near and far to share in the magic of Inverneill House. The fruit blossom in the walled garden has been stunning, but so to have been the wild garlic and bluebells, which are now reclaiming the hillside we cleared of ponticum.

Amongst our many visitors have been the nephew of a neighbour, Scott, who came to play the bagpipes while walking the walled garden paths that we have restored. The former owner and bagpipe player, Colonel Duncan Campbell would have been very pleased! The acoustics were fantastic, and now we are very keen to find a way to bring such live music, ideally with dancing, to the community.

Our own nephew Tom spent 10 days with us, helping with the preparation of the vegetable beds and laying slabs at the rear of the house. His mobile phone would only pick up a good signal in the downstairs bathroom, so each evening he took this over as his office. Fortunately BT Open Reach have just been in touch, as they are preparing to install fibre broadband next April. This will be a game changer for the economy of Inverneill.

We were also extremely pleased to welcome five visitors from Thailand, who were staying with neighbours. After a community welcome and a short tour, they settled in to games of table tennis, table football, pool and a spot of karaoke! Great fun was had by all.

Am informed that the end of the Thai text should be translated as “Respect to Uncle Martin”. Much appreciated.

April 2024

Today is 14th April. The first swallow has returned. The weather continues to be very wet, with the pond still full of water. We have planted two trees in the walled garden, a Dawn Redwood and a Bald Cypress, which in time should grow to compliment the iconic Monkey Puzzle tree. Preparing the soil in the vegetable plots for planting has been laborious, due to the wet conditions, but onions and potatoes are now in. The black grape vine gifted to us and now in the greenhouse has come into leaf. The hops are already a foot long.

We were pleased to be able to connect another descendent of Duncan Campbell, 5th of Inverneill, Mark Meredith, with Nicolette Heath, who visited us last year. It is always a pleasure when people having a connection with this place reach out to us.

Also very pleased to report that planning for the Argyll scouts to hold their District Camp in the walled garden has resumed.

March 2024

Much time and effort has gone into preparing the vegetable and fruit beds for spring, including planting two new rows of raspberry canes. Another major job started has been lowering the level of the patio stones, which had been blocking the air vents for the house. This has entailed removing tons of rubble, one wheelbarrow load at a time!

We are not going to sell up. Going through the home report process has been extremely helpful. We can now see that we have been doing the right thing (turning a derelict property into a well maintained, energy efficient home). The house now has an EPC rating of D. All the categories in the home report are 1s and 2s, no 3s. However, the Council has been doing the wrong thing (pressuring us to sell the house when changing the ownership of the house can only contribute negatively to the availability of affordable housing). The resources consumed by us selling and another party buying Inverneill House cannot in any way improve or increase the housing stock in Argyll. Changing ownership would be a wholly unproductive exercise. Those resources should be going into productive investment: repairing, insulating and building houses. Each of us has the same number of hours in a day. Whether we chose to use them productively or not is up to us.

29 February. Looking back through photographs taken in 2018, I came across these photographs of drawings for a proposed extension of the South Tower in the walled garden. Quite stunning.

23 February. A Golden Eagle flew low over the house this afternoon in the direction of the Kilberry Road. We see White Tailed Eagles quite regularly, but this was a first for a Golden Eagle. They are normally high up in the hills.

The Scottish Energy Consents Unit has issued a scoping opinion on the High Brenfield Wind Farm proposal. This can be found on page 3 of the Documents (so buried) on the web page for the project. Should the Applicants decide to make a formal planning application, they will be expected to address all of the comments made by those who responded during the scoping consultation process.

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“Tis Better to Have Loved and Lost than Never to Have Loved at All”: Lord Tennyson

Here are a couple of ideas we had been actively considering for development of the walled garden as a local attraction.

A buggy would be very helpful for transporting things in and out, such as tables and chairs and sound equipment for outdoor music (the acoustics being excellent), but also for improving access for people with impaired mobility.

A much smaller version of train would suffice to keep many kids entertained, and could run along the paths that follow the curves of the garden wall.

February 2024

The year started in a blaze of optimism, looking forwards especially to hosting the Argyll Scouts District Camp in the walled garden at the end of the summer. With that in mind, I designed and planted a yew maze and more trees. However, the winds of change started blowing and it quickly became clear that our time as stewards of Inverneill House has to come to an end. It has been a most joyful, fulfilling part of my life. This is a most exquisitely beautiful place to call your home, and nestled in a warm, caring community. But now Inverneill House will need to adapt once again to the needs of new stewards and the community that it serves. Hopefully the estate agents we appoint will be able to find people who care as passionately for it and the community as we do.

December 2023

On 5th December we hosted a meeting attended by 22 members of the Inverneill community to discuss the proposals for a major wind farm at High Brenfield. I am mindful that not long ago we hosted three COP26 delegates from the African Meteorological Institute who commuted to the conference in Glasgow each day by the 926 bus, because their original hosts had cancelled their booking in favour of a better offer.

When cars speed along the A83 through Inverneill, they can have no idea what an extraordinary place this is. The people put up with the deprivations of chronically under-invested infrastructure, because they love living in this compassionate community in this beautiful natural space. The wind farm proposals are causing deep pain, but the people meeting in our home conducted their meeting with quiet, mutual respect fully aware of the global issues driving the wind farm proposal.

November 2023

We have been busy clearing the overgrowth outside the walled garden, and begun preparing the vegetable plots ready for next years plantings. There are still plenty of crops to harvest, including carrots, parsnips and turnips.

A chance encounter with Scout Leader, David Smart at Lochgilphead church hall after the Memorial Day parade has led to plans being drawn up for the Argyll Scouts to hold their District Camp in the walled garden next August. It would be a privilege to be able to provide them with this gift.

More recently we have learned of plans by Low Carbon UK to erect 17 wind turbines with a maximum tip height of 220m within a kilometre of us. These plans are incompatible with the objectives (on our home page) we set for our very considerable investment in Inverneill House and also with our community-focused values upon which those objectives are based. The future conservation of this place, and especially its listed walled garden, depends upon it continuing to be a special place that people are attracted to visit and use as a venue for events.

October 2023

On 20th October, 2023 we were visited by Nicolette Heath, who is a descendent of Duncan Campbell 5th of Inverneill. Nicolette brought with her a very impressive family tree.

September 2023

We have welcomed lots of visitors: family, friends, descendants of former owners of the house, people on holidays and complete strangers who have asked to be shown around. It is great to see the house and garden once again able to bring joy into people’s lives, young and old.

Congratulations to Kim Polley in Australia who has now published her book about her Chisholm ancestors, one of whom lived at Whitehouse and was the coach drive at Inverneill House. https://polleybooksaustralia.com.au/

August 2023

17th August 2023 Harvest

17th August 2023 Gravel Paths

July 2023

It was very dry during June, so much so that the paths in the walled garden became visible as brown grass. These were marked out, and an attempt is now being made to restore them, lifting the turf carefully to leave the gravel underneath.

May 2023

This posting is being made in response to complaints that the diary is not being maintained! Sorry!

Winter has come and gone. A werewolf haunted the turrets at Halloween and the doors opened for a great family Christmas-time gathering. Smoke issuing through the walls from the “pub” fire failed to extinguish the home brewing process, from kit to glass. Mass horse manuring of the vegetable plots and fruit trees has laid down hope for bumper harvests.

Much time and too much energy was expended locating the foundations of the retaining wall to the East of the towers, including two huge foundation stones for pillars positioned opposite the archway entrance into the walled garden. Fallen and buried stones were used to rebuild the wall where physically possible, but some stones proved too heavy to lift. It appears that the field between the wall and the road was designed to be part of the gardens, such that the pillars and arch would have been conceived as part of a grand driveway and entrance to the property. The old maps are wrong, because the pillars are aligned either side of a drive at right angles to the main garden wall, not as a continuation of the drive through the walled garden. A couple of life-sized statues of kings of old facing out to the Loch would look fantastic on these pillar foundations!

In mid-winter the days are very short, but we found that we looked forward to the evenings sitting before the log burner, listening to old vinyl records purchased from the Clock Tower and reading. The key is to stay away from the TV!

Hops have now been planted up the wall by the North turret, and twine from what was possibly Inverneill’s largest ball of twine has ambitiously been tied to old nails right up to the top of the wall. The Inverneill Oktoberfest celebrating the bringing in of the hop harvest is anticipated.

More fruit trees have been planted, along with almost 200 whips of native trees that have been planted inside and outside the walled garden. You plant trees for future generations, but there is a deep satisfaction that comes from imagining them fully grown.

The wildlife in the garden has never ceased to entrance, with visits from both roe and red deer, which kindly left a huge antler, as well as nocturnal visits from a pine marten, captured on a camera trap. It is painful but spellbinding to watch the heron forensically searching the edge of the pond and devouring unsuspecting frogs, toads and newts.

Now spring is in full surge, with swallows back at their coach house nest, bats hanging from the rafters in the room above and common sandpipers peeping along the burn. The fruit trees are full of blossom, the azaleas, bluebells and tulips are a blaze of colour, the crops are all planted out and the weeds are having a field day. This is a truly wonderful time to be in this beautiful part of Argyll.

And the best bit of all, on 9th March, 2023, our wedding anniversary, Iona Frances Stewart Hay, our first grandchild was born!!

October 2022

It is difficult to believe that the last posting was in June, but in truth visitors, the gardens and work on the wall and summerhouses has filled our time. In addition to growing our own food, we are now brewing our own beers and ciders.

We have also visited family in Boston, USA, and called in at Concord Museum, which contains the lock and key for the prison that once housed Archibald Campbell as a prisoner of war during the war of independence. The staff had no knowledge of the vital importance of Inverneill to US history! However, we have made sure that the visitor centre for Walden Pond, once home to philosopher and author Henry David Thoreau is linked, for Inverneill is Walden-kind of place.

One of the great, unexpected pleasures of looking after this website is the correspondence it generates, especially from people who have some historical connection to Inverneill. Most recently Bruce Clydsdale has made contact from Australia. He is researching his family history, which establishes a connection with the Wilson family who lived in Inverneill in 1852. Bruce was born in London in 1943 to an English mother and Australian father, who was a spitfire pilot. His Clydsdale forebears emigrated from Airdrie in 1838, leaving from Tobermory on the ‘Brilliant’. The connection with the Wilson family is through his GG Grandmother Mary Paterson and three  siblings, who, after their parents died, emigrated to Australia in 1852. Two siblings remained in Scotland. The Wilsons wanted to adopt his GG Grandmother Mary who was aged 14 years. The name of Wilson appears to have been connected with Inverneill for a long time. John Wilson was the stonemason who built the mausoleum, and perhaps also the wall and summerhouses in the walled garden?

In spite of being extremely busy, we did manage to find time to scare small children. This can be a spooky place.

June 2022

30th June

The house and garden have been full of visitors. Mackerel fishing off Tarbert Pier has produced some excellent catches and an encounter with a visitor from Sweden who recalled, when living in Tarbert thirty years ago, visiting the house to play pool in the coach house and to clear dead bats from the water tank!

Four swallow chicks have fledged in the coach house, while another brood is growing in the nest in the roof of the big tower. Everywhere there are parent birds feeding chicks: wagtails, flycatchers, woodpeckers, finches, etc.

The garden has yielded up loganberries, rocket, turnips and early potatoes. The Chilean fire bush outside has produced a carpet of red petals. As usual the mice have taken most of the strawberries. Roses planted earlier are starting to bloom and offer great promise once they have become established. Careful repair work has continued on the towers, using pieces of the original sandstone found lying about and traditional lime mortar.

12th June

We have received an email from David Haigh (da_haigh@bigpond.net.au) in Australia, who is a direct descendant of Eliza Henrietta Campbell, who was born in India abt. 1807 and was the daughter of Duncan Campbell, 5^th laird of Inverneill. David has written a book about his ancestors.

David is keen to locate the grave of Eliza, which he thinks might be in Inverneill, and asks us to investigate. We will see what we can find out. David’s email is provided above in case there are any members of the Campbell family who could assist him with his search.

4th June

This was an event organised by the Inverneill community for the Inverneill Community. It was huge fun and brought together over 30 residents from the very youngest to the very oldest.

In order to have a secure future, this beautiful, unique, historic place in Scotland needs not only to motivate its steward owners to take care of it, but also to be woven into the fabric of the Inverneill community. We are doing our best to make this happen!

May 2022

A hard working month, with enormous gratitude to our neighbour Chris at Olbia. The turrets are now ready to be enjoyed by young and old alike. The swallows have returned to the coach house. The mice have eaten all the newly sown peas, but the greenhouse has begun to produce excellent strawberries. Eight tons of gravel have been shifted into the walled garden. We are ready for the summer!

April 2022

Visit of Steve and Judith Horner

Table Football in the Coach House

Table Tennis in the Coach House

Other Activity in the Coach House- Teacher Urgently Needed

The turret roofs are now repaired, thanks to the tenacity of Colin Gilmore. One has already hosted its first children’s birthday party. We look forward to many happy events being celebrated therein in years to come.

Thanks to Kim Polley in Australia for getting in touch by email to let us know that her ancestor, Alexander Chisholm is recorded as being the coach driver in the 1881 census for the Inverneill Estate.

March 2022

This is a beautiful building, well worth fighting through the rhododendron jungle to get to. Many thanks to Kate Haig for guiding us there. The redwood trees planted next to it have attained quite a size. Someone has partly broken the stained glass window at the back, but the building is still secure.

February 2022

December 2021

25 December, 2021

A kind Christmas gift from family living in Boston, Massachusetts is a copy of “Sir Archibald Campbell of Inverneill, Sometime Prisoner of War in the Jail at Concord, Massachusetts” by Charles H. Walcott, published in 1898.

The book contains an account of part of the life of Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell from when he sailed in 1776 with the 71st Regiment of Highlanders from Greenock to Boston to fight on the British side in the American war of independence. During this time, when he was held as a prisoner of war, he was yet able to arrange for the purchase of the land upon which Inverneill House was built.

The book contains a photograph of Inverneill House taken in the 1890s’ shortly after the tower had been constructed. The three spherical stones shown in front of the house have now been found, one by the entrance arch to the walled garden and the other two in the pond.

The war of Independence being long over, it is now possible for the present owners of the house to enjoy dual UK/US nationality, and for their younger son James to live with his wife, Heather in Boston and work in research on Covid testing strategies at Harvard University.

November 2021

November 27

Today a brick is featured. It was found in the south tower of the walled garden. The marking was obscured by mortar, which has been chipped away. The brick probably formed part of the chimney or fireplace. The brick is marked GARTGRAIG, so would appear to have been manufactured by the Gartcraig Fire Clay Co. founded in Glasgow in the mid 1800s. The company was formed after the tower was built, so the brick must have been introduced into the tower later.

November 22

The driver of the stricken Golf (see below) visited us today, bearing us a kind gift of a bottle of sparkling wine. Being trapped in the pitch dark without a phone signal while being responsible for the safe delivery of items essential for the wedding was a nightmare, but all went well in the end.

On Saturday November 20, around lunchtime, we were over 300 miles away when reports started to come in of a Volkswagen Golf estate car stuck up to its axles in mud behind the coach house. It was believed to have arrived between 7 and 8 pm the previous evening. The police had been informed, but had advised it was a civil matter. We immediately packed up and drove back. It was dark when we arrived. The car was still there, with no explanatory note having been left by the car or posted through our letterbox. The plates indicated registration in Glasgow.

The car was still there on Sunday morning. We went out to inspect it, took photographs and posted the mystery on the neighbourhood FACEBOOK page. No-one recognised the car. A report came in of a person behaving strangely on the Kilberry road. Several checked out the car registration online, and suggested calling the police. A few people thought we should check the pond and surroundings for a body. Concerns about the welfare of the car owner grew, so after checking around, the police were called again.

Around coffee time, speculation was mounting. The last few metres travelled by the car were examined in forensic detail and theories were developed about the possible fate of the driver. There had clearly been a determined effort made to reverse the car out.

Just then, a fine looking new Land Rover Defender arrived. It contained the rescue party, coming equipped with tow ropes. It transpired that rescue party were two Land Rover engineers, one a Welsh groom who had just gotten married to his Scottish bride at Crear and the other his French boss. The Golf had been abandoned by the father of the bride, on his way to the wedding venue with the bridal dresses, who had mistaken the drive for the Kilberry Road.

After many photographs having been taken, the Defender effortlessly pulled the Golf out of the mud, and without further ado the two vehicles were able to depart. Shortly afterwards the police arrived, having been unsuccessful in their attempts to telephone the owner of the vehicle, and were highly amused by the tale of what had transpired.

And that, gentle reader, is how Inverneill House became an alternative venue for wedding participants, an international crime scene and a marketing backdrop for Land Rover!

November 12-14, 2021

Three Gentlemen from Niamey

We responded to the appeal from the Scottish government to offer to host delegates to COP26. It was our huge pleasure to host three gentlemen from the African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development, including their Director General. ACMAD is based in Niamey, Niger and is staffed by representatives of the member countries.

Apart from learning a great deal about climate change, especially in Africa, sharing experiences of our different cultures and gaining an opportunity to try conversing in French, we also made some great new friends. We hope that this initial contact will open opportunities for other collaboration in the future.