Description

The monument to be scheduled includes the ruins of a 3-storey Z-plan tower-house dated 1609 by an armorial panel above the door; and adjacent to it a ruined brick-built mausoleum, constructed for the Earl of Breadalbane by the architect Wm Akinson in 1829-30, probably on the site of an earlier chapel.

Also included in the monument is a broad artificial platform, roughly rectangular in shape, which appears to represent part of an earlier castle, and other artificial mounds to the N (including the so-called 'Judgement Hill') which also formed part of earlier structures.

The monument also includes a stone-lined cistern (commonly referred to as the 'Beheading Pit') lying immediately north of the tower, and an area within which the configuration of the site suggests ancillary functions may have been accommodated. All of this is within an area measuring some 120m NS x 110m EW and covering 1.03 ha or thereabouts.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The grouping of the elements forming the monument in an area of a little over a hectare makes it a field monument of national importance. The towerhouse, though poorly preserved, represents a well dated and documented example of its type. The layout of the earthworks suggests some form of motte and bailey castle pre-dating the tower. The mausoleum is an integral part of the complex serving to illustrate its later history. The monument is of further national importance in its potential through archaeological investigation for shedding significant light on the medieval and post-medieval history of Killin and of its leading family, the Campbells of Glenorchy.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NN 53 SE 17.

Bibliography

MacGibbon, D. and Ross, T. (1887-92) The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, 5v, Edinburgh, vol. 3, 538-9.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland