Inveraray

On Wednesday and Thursday night we stayed in Balmaha, Loch Lomond in an Inn which was right next to the lake. Thursday morning was spent at Inveraray Castle. We had a morning session with the Archivist who showed us several items from the Archives - we each got one item which we had to examine and then explain to the group what it was. Their archive is largely made up of the Argyll Papers, the most important private collection in Britain. It consists of letters and documents relating to the history of the Argyll Family. My object was a bound book full of letters referring to Archibald, 8th Earl and Marquess of Argyll including petitions to the King from himself, Margaret Machioness of Argyll, Archibald Lord Lorne and others.
Lord Lorne married the daughter of Queen Victoria, Princess Louise, in 1871, so the Argyll Family and Queen Victoria were connected. Queen Victoria visited the castle in 1875. We were shown a letter planning for her arrival to the Castle.
Other letters which were part of the collection were from Queen Elizabeth I, James VI and Mary Queen of Scots to the Duke of Argyll.
There were also drawing plans for the Castle from the early 19th century which didn’t evolve, and a very early census of people within the town, recording their names and ages, from 1779.
Very little of the archive is accessible to the public at the moment - the Archivist has a large cataloguing project ahead of her.
After this we got a quick tour around the Castle which was actually given by one of the girls on the Open Palace Programme because she works there as a tour guide.
Half of the Castle is a private residence for the Duke and Duchess (Torquhil Campbell and Eleanor Cadbury) and the other half is open to the public. Like Alnwick Castle, the Dining Room was used in Dowton Abbey.
Also one of the rooms contained a piano with a photograph of Audrey Hepburn from My Fair Lady which seemed a bit strange and out of context, but we were told that the music for My Fair Lady was composed on that piano.
Some of the items on display within the Castle include family photographs of the current Duke and Duchess, the Duchess Eleanor Cadbury’s wedding dress from 2002, and items from Princess Louise’s wedding to Lord Lorne (including a piece of their wedding cake).
I think so far Inveraray Castle has been one of my favourites - it’s situated in a really nice spot surrounded by gardens and a lake. I think we should have spent more time there.

Ten minutes from Inveraray Castle is Auchindrain (pronounced Akin-dray-in). It is the most complete surviving example of a joint tenancy township. It is essentially the remains of an old farming village dating back to the 1500s, which was still a working farm up until the 1960s, and it has since been set up as a museum. In 1875 the Duke of Argyll took Queen Victoria here to see the primitive villages. A lot of people noticed the strong contrast coming to here from Inveraray Castle (how regular people lived versus the wealthy).
The Museum only attracts 5000 visitors a year and they are trying to attract more. They have 100 objects in their collection, which includes each building/stone house.
They also have a resident cat, Cat Liath (meaning ‘Grey Cat’ in Gaelic). The cat is the Head Tour Guide and Chief Mouser. As we walked through the farming village and each stone house, the cat followed behind us. The cat attracted a lot of attention and pats, and we were told that the most popular item sold in the gift shop is a postcard of the cat.
In one of the stone houses they cooked pancakes for us over the fire, and we had tea and cakes which
was very nice.