In the 1880s, two busy Edinburgh architects embarked upon an enormously ambitious project. David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross began to survey, measure and sketch the castles of Scotland, travelling the length and breadth of the country on trains, bicycles and on foot, working at weekends when they could get away from their office.
Neither was young, and in the middle of the project MacGibbon’s life was blighted by both family tragedy and the prospect of financial ruin, but together they produced five lengthy volumes of engagingly-written text entitled The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, illustrated with thousands of accurate sketches and plans. This magisterial work surveyed more than 700 of Scotland’s castles and castle-like buildings, ranging from great mediaeval fortresses to little laird’s houses with pepper-pot turrets. The combination of breadth and depth, the sweeping scale coupled with scholarly attention to detail, and the construction of a systematic approach to categorising along with passionate conservationist campaigning, had never before been attempted and has never yet been surpassed.
The scale of MacGibbon and Ross’s work is monumental; the 2,500 drawings, plans and sketches cover Scotland’s castles in minute detail and have frequently been reproduced since their first publication. In addition, the volumes also survey town
