A Passion for Castles: The Story of MacGibbon and Ross and the Castles they Surveyed

By Janet Brennan-Inglis

In the 1880s two Edinburgh architects began to survey, measure and sketch the castles of Scotland, travelling the length and breadth of the country on trains, bicycles and on foot. Together they produced the five magnificent volumes of The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, an unrivalled work of research that surveys more than 700 of Scotland's castellated buildings, ranging from great medieval fortresses to small lairds' houses with pepper-pot turrets, and is illustrated with thousands of sketches and plans.
The first part of A Passion for Castles tells the life stories of David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross and their work as Edinburgh architects before they embarked on their magisterial survey, revealing interesting and previously unknown details about the two men. The second part of the book sets their enormously ambitious castles project in its historical context, and describes how MacGibbon and Ross managed to achieve their pioneering, systematic and comprehensive survey.
The final part of the book provides a regional overview of the current status of all the castles surveyed by MacGibbon and Ross, followed by a thematic exploration of those that have been lost, those that have been transformed and those at risk of collapse, before posing questions about what the future holds for the castles of Scotland.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Donald
• Release date: Oct 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781788855709

Janet Brennan-Inglis

Janet Brennan-Inglis graduated from the University of Edinburgh and gained a PhD in the restoration of Scottish castles from the University of Dundee. After working in education in the Netherlands for 25 years, she retired to live in Dumfries and Galloway, where she and her husband had bought and restored a sixteenth-century ruined castle. She is a former chair of the Scottish Castles Association and is Chair of the Galloway group of the National Trust for Scotland as well as a board member of Historic Environment Scotland, and is the author of Scotland’s Castles: Rescued, Rebuilt and Reoccupied (2014).

Book preview

Illustration

A Passion for Castles

Illustration

Hatton House, Edinburgh, from John Slezer’s Theatrum Scotiae.

Illustration

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

John Donald, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd

West Newington House

10 Newington Road

Edinburgh

EH9 1QS

ISBN: 978 1 788855 70 9

Copyright © Janet Brennan-Inglis 2022

The right of Janet Brennan-Inglis to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission of the publisher.

The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the support of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland towards the publication of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library

Typeset by Mark Blackadder

Printed and bound in Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow

Contents

______

Foreword by David Walker

Preface

Acknowledgements

Editorial Notes

Picture Credits

Part 1   The Men: MacGibbon and Ross, Architects and Scholars

  Introduction

1   The Life of David MacGibbon (1831–1902)

2   The Life of Thomas Ross (1839–1930)

Part 2   The Books: MacGibbon and Ross and The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland

3   The Predecessors

4   Surveying the Castellated Architecture of Scotland

Part 3   The Castles, Then and Now

  Introduction

5   Castles Across the Country: An Overview

South Scotland

Western Central Scotland

Eastern Central Scotland

North Central Scotland

North-east Scotland

North and North-west Scotland

6   Castles Lost, Castles at Risk and Castles at War

7   Castles Transformed

8   Castles for All

9   The Future

Appendix: Thomas Ross’s Essay on Restoration

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index of Castles and Other Buildings

General Index

Picture Section

Foreword

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David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross’s The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland occupies a unique place in the annals of architectural history. Although a great many of the buildings included in it have been researched and published in much greater depth since, it has never been superseded. Ever since the publication of the final volume in 1892 its sheer comprehensiveness has ensured that when searching for an image or similarities in plan and detail in Scottish castles and tower houses it is still the first point of reference.

I acquired my set in 1964 and its five volumes are still my most frequently used books. Before David Ainslie Thin’s Mercat Press kindly reprinted them in 1971 finding a complete set was all but impossible. From at least the age of 19 when I became a volunteer researcher for the former National Buildings Record I was determined to have a set of my own for quick reference. Every antiquarian bookseller knew of it, but none had a complete set on their shelves and at least one had a waiting list. After more than a decade of searching I found a set in a Dundee auction room. I have not forgotten the sheer elation I felt when the Perth bookseller Mr Deuchars silenced the opposition by interrupting the bidding with the limit I had given him, at that date about 5% of my salary. It was that important to have my own MacGibbon and Ross by me when writing up fieldwork in the days before libraries had photocopiers. On my return home I found that they had belonged to the Dundee architect William Salmond, who had generously given me half a day of his time to tell me the story of the Salmond practice and his recollections of architects he had known. They have assumed even greater significance now that Dr Brennan has traced the link between the Ross and Salmond families which he alluded to only briefly at the time. It must have been at least part of the reason why he had them.

From the very beginning I became interested in MacGibbon and Ross as architects and as individuals as well as authors. Unlike most architectural writers of their generation they had undertaken their survey in middle age and not as young men bent on establishing a reputation to launch their architectural practice, as in the case of their friend and close contemporary Robert Rowand Anderson. Although MacGibbon’s early National Bank buildings had been accomplished Scottish baronial I quickly found that their later architecture was much less influenced by their researches than I had expected, only the sadly lost Parish Council Offices on Edinburgh’s Castle Terrace demonstrating their profound knowledge of sixteenth-century detail to the fullest possible extent. Nor was MacGibbon influenced by his continental studies in the company of Richard Norman Shaw, or indeed by Shaw’s own architecture, although I did not learn of the link between them until later. His architecture and in turn that of Ross was largely determined by what their Edinburgh market sought, initially a distinctive London Italianate, then the brief fashion for Venetian Renaissance, French classicism of the César Daly school, and finally Franco-Italianate with occasional forays in the American stick style of the 1870s and 1880s. It was too late to find anyone who remembered them either in architectural practice or in the field, but Dr Ronald Cant and Stewart Cruden had talked at length to Ross’s daughters. They were able to relay their vivid memories both of their father and David MacGibbon, and of what had had to be done to see their survey work through to completion in parallel with running a large office.

Stewart Cruden always had a photograph of Thomas Ross on his desk and when a volume of essays was organised on his retirement as Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments in 1980, MacGibbon and Ross was the obvious subject for my contribution. Finding the Ross descendants was a simple matter. A friend of mine, Alison Roberts, née Bell, was of that family and put me in touch with Thomas Ross’s nephew Dr David Ross who had worked for Ross’s elder son Dr Thomas Arthur Ross and granddaughter Dr Jean Durrant. Both feature in this book. Tracing the MacGibbons was more difficult, but ultimately an enquiry with the Peebles solicitors Blackwood & Smith revealed that they still managed David MacGibbon’s family trusts. Gordon Fyfe put me in touch with his grandsons, David MacGibbon in Berlin, and Dr Tom MacGibbon, a general practitioner in Norfolk. The latter was quite remarkably helpful with telephoned observations on what I had written, but died before my essay was in print. Although I did not realise it at the time, the invitation to write about MacGibbon and Ross had only just avoided his recollections being lost.

Word limits compelled me to leave MacGibbon and Ross’s books to speak for themselves and concentrate on researching their lives and architectural practice, discovering that MacGibbon had a place in Scottish business history as an architect– property developer paralleled only by the Edinburgh architects John Dick Peddie and Charles George Hood Kinnear in his own generation and the Glasgow architect John Campbell McKellar in the next. At the time I thought the biographical aspect was as complete as it could be, but as will be seen in this book Dr Brennan has taken it much further, particularly in respect of Thomas Ross’s background, that of the publisher David Douglas and the developments in printing technology which had made such generously illustrated books commercially viable. She has also gone deeply into the methodology of their survey, and into the architects and historians who answered their call for assistance beyond the second volume. Even with their help one can but marvel at the speed and accuracy with which they measured and drew when entirely dependent on the railways, local hire and bicycles much less sophisticated than we have now.

In this book Dr Brennan has brought MacGibbon and Ross’s volumes up-to-date with an analysis of what has happened to their subject-matter since 1892. While the houses of Elizabethan and Jacobean England had remained desirable on the property market, most of the smaller Scottish houses in that timeframe had been abandoned or at best become bothies for farmworkers. MacGibbon and Ross’s volumes were full of expressions of concern at their rapid decline and in some instances appeals for something to be done. The rescue of Earlshall and the re-roofing of Barcaldine may well have been immediate responses to their call, in both cases achieved without any of the additions hitherto thought necessary for late-Victorian living. But while there were a few further re-roofings and re-occupations before the First World War and just after it, the future of the numerous roofless or unoccupied tower houses which were not being taken into state care looked bleak. Archaeological interest in them was rising but by the time Ross died in 1930 he may have felt disappointed that no one seemed to be interested in living in them and that The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland was fast becoming simply a record of what had existed in the 1880s and early 1890s. The Second World War and the financial climate of the following decades brought about a drastic slow-down of what could be taken into state care and by 1960 it still seemed inevitable that most of our sixteenth and early seventeenth century architectural heritage would be progressively lost. As will be seen in these pages a considerable number were lost, the worst instance being Elphinstone over stabilisation costs which seem trifling now, together with several which had remained in occupation, the most serious being Hatton. The sixties were a particularly destructive time but by the end of the decade the repair of Balfluig and Kinkell had demonstrated that the smaller tower houses could be successfully adapted to twentieth-century living. As will be seen, they set a trend. Although both were very ruinous, they had still been roofed and fell within the conventional definition of repair: but early in the next decade it was gradually accepted that tower houses which had been open to the elements for more than a century but were otherwise reasonably intact could be re-roofed to ensure their survival. Among them is Barholm, re-roofed and re-occupied by the author and her husband Dr John Brennan.

While a very few restorations have been less than perfect and a significant number of major tower houses are still at risk of collapse, we are now almost on a par with England in terms of sixteenth and early seventeenth century houses back in occupation with a secure future. Did the continuing influence of MacGibbon and Ross’s The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland have any part in that? While the primary appeal for those who undertook major repair and rebuilding projects came from the buildings themselves, and location, setting and familial relationship with the site have also been important, several I knew had trawled through all five volumes to draw up short-leets of tower houses whose owners might be approached even before the 1971 reprint made it readily accessible. Sometimes the illustrations showed them what had been lost, more often related houses enabled them to visualise what they would have when roofs and any other missing features were reinstated, and with the passage of time some felt the urgency of MacGibbon and Ross’s calls to action were even more compelling than they had been in their lifetime.

Remember MacGibbon and Ross gratefully. Such royalties as they may have received never came anywhere near covering their expenditure in travel and accommodation. But their work has ultimately paid off in a way that anything less thorough would not have done. Their contribution to Scottish history, Scottish self-identity and the conservation movement from the early 1970s onwards has been great. The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland was a heroic enterprise, achieved in a remarkably short timeframe at great personal cost, and its story is supremely well told in this book.

David Walker

Emeritus Professor of Art History,

University of St Andrews, and former Chief Inspector

of Historic Buildings, Scottish Office

Preface

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For many years, like all Scottish castle enthusiasts, I used ‘MacGibbon and Ross’ as the bible for information on any of the 700 plus buildings that they surveyed in The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland , giving little thought to the two men who had carried out the momentous task of visiting, sketching and describing in detail the castellated heritage of Scotland in five volumes. That is until I came across a fascinating chapter in a rather obscure festschrift, written by David Walker in 1984: The Architecture of MacGibbon and Ross: The Background to the Books . It opened my eyes to the extent of the contribution that MacGibbon and Ross made to the architecture of Edinburgh in the nineteenth century, and also to the individual lives of the two men whose backstories are as interesting as the buildings they surveyed. The Dictionary of Scottish Architects, an online treasure trove of information, initiated by David Walker, provided further rich seams of information on David MacGibbon, Thomas Ross and their families. I had been working for some time to chart the recent histories of the castles of MacGibbon and Ross, as a kind of ‘past and present’ update to The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland. When I found how strongly their personal stories resonate and how many challenges and adventures they faced in the researching and writing of their books, it became inevitable to include this material as context for the updated overview of the history of the buildings. The biographies of David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross, largely unknown outside a narrow specialist circle, deserve to be much more widely celebrated. I have been lucky to find some additional primary and secondary source material about Thomas Ross, to add to the wealth of information already uncovered by David Walker, and a few extra details about David MacGibbon, but much of what is included here relies heavily on David Walker’s meticulous and scholarly research and his generosity in sharing his materials.

This book is in three parts: ‘Part 1: The Men’, recounting the stories of the personal and professional lives of David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross; ‘Part 2: The Books’, detailing the process of their researching and writing of The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, set in the context of past and future surveys; ‘Part 3: The Castles, Then and Now’, themed chapters bringing up-to-date the continuing histories of the most interesting of the buildings that MacGibbon and Ross surveyed and raising questions about their future survival or, in too many cases, cataloguing their loss.

Janet Brennan-Inglis

Acknowledgements

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First and foremost, my grateful thanks go to Professor David Walker for his generosity in lending me his papers and sharing his exhaustive knowledge of MacGibbon and Ross, and much else besides. He has been the kindest of critics, most meticulous proofreader and the friendliest supporter I could have wished for.

For gallantly reading drafts, spotting errors and omissions and offering helpful advice: Richard Agnew, Dr John Brennan (to whom extra special thanks are due for his unstinting support for this project over six long years), Michael Davis, Dr Mavis Donner, Professor Michael Golombok, Dr Fiona McLean, Professor Lesley Milne and Ian Robertson. Any mistakes remaining are mine alone.

For general support and responding to requests for help: Ian Boyter, printer and author; Barbara Brown, genealogist; Jamie Crawford, author; Professor James Stevens Curl, historian and author; Agatha Ann Graves, historian; Carol-Ann Hildersley, Senior Manager of RIAS; Duncan McAra, librarian of the Order of St John; Alison MacDonald of Inch House Community Centre; John MacKenzie, photographer; Frances MacRae, archivist at the Dower House Corstorphine; Bob Marshall, digital artist; Dr Alastair Maxwell-Irving, historian; Dr David Mitchell, Director of Conservation at HES; Gregor Murray, Merchants Company of Edinburgh; Richard Paxman aka Arjayempee, photographer; Ian Riches of the NTS Archives; Ian Robertson, Deacon-Convener of the Trades of Edinburgh; Ken Smyth, artist; Ralph Sutherland, great grandson of Thomas Ross’s cousin; Frances Sutton of Garron Communications; Dr David W. Walker, author and historian. The staff of the following institutions: Edinburgh City Libraries, in particular Alison Stoddart; Glasgow Museums and Collections, in particular Mary Anne Meyering; HES Archives, in particular Mindy Lynch; National Galleries Scotland; the National Library of Scotland, in particular Louise Speller; Merchiston School in Edinburgh; the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, particularly Catherine Aitken and Adela Rauchova; the University of Dundee archives; the University of Glasgow Library. All have been generous with their time and resources, even when we have been unable to meet in person.

Finally, for welcoming me into their castle homes before and during the Covid pandemic: Sir Archibald and Lady Grant of Monymusk; Nicola and John Teal of Castle Leslie; Michael Savage of Harthill; Jamie Raine-Fraser of Wedderlie; Alan and Alison Gibbs of Hills Tower; Scott MacKay and Laura Hudson (and, previously, Peter and Lesley Kormylo) of Abbot’s Tower; Tobias Parker and James Cavendish of Buittle.

Editorial Notes

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Spelling

Many castle spellings are a nightmare of seemingly random variations: for example, Cumstoun, Cumston, Compstone and Campston; Fa’side, Faside, Falside, Fawside and Fawsyde. I have done my best to be consistent and followed MacGibbon and Ross’s spellings when describing their surveys, but otherwise used the generally accepted modern spelling, if there is a difference. There will doubtless be instances when a spelling does not accord with the reader’s ‘correct’ version, for which I apologise. Dismay at variations in spelling is not new. The Reverend Andrew Symson (1638–1712), in his History of Galloway, grumbles throughout at the lack of consistent spelling of local names. He was particularly critical of Timothy Pont’s maps, in which he found ‘the names of places are so very ill spell’d, that although I was very well acquainted with the bounds, yet it was a long time before I could understand the particular places designed in that’ (p. 109).

Quotations from The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland

The text is liberally peppered with quotations from the five volumes of MacGibbon and Ross, The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland (1887–1892). These end with a cross-reference to the volume and page number, e.g. ‘(1: 190)’.

County names

Throughout the text I mainly use the historical (1890) Scottish county names, as used by MacGibbon and Ross, referencing modern council area names where helpful.

Abbreviations

Picture Credits

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The author and publisher are grateful to the following individuals and organisations for kind permission to reproduce the images listed.

Jo Cound / Drummond Castle Gardens: Drummond Castle and Gardens, Plate 28

Family Tree Magazine – county map of Scotland, Plate 5

Francis Frith Collection: Druminnor Castle, p. 162

Clare Hastings: Crotchet Castle by Osbert Lancaster, p. 133; Fantasy Castle by Osbert Lancaster, p. 218

Glasgow Museums and Collections: Haggs Castle 1855, p. 160; Cardarroch House, p. 135

Historic Environment Scotland (HES): Wester Kames, p. 10; Ashfield Grange, p. 22; Fresco by Jessie MacGibbon, p. 24; Thomas Ross at Trimontium, p. 36; Fordell House, p. 66; Grangepans House, p. 92; Flemington House, p. 99; Granton House, p. 109; Stonebyres Castle, p. 111; Wallyford House, p. 121; Cassencarie interior, p. 125; Midhope Castle interior, p. 137; Aiket Castle 1974, p. 152; Castle of Park, p. 163; Powrie Castle, p. 177; Kinneil Castle (both images), pp. 188 and 189; Lochmaben Castle shelter, p. 208. All of these images are available on the Canmore website: https://canmore.org.uk.

John MacKenzie / The Edinburgh Merchant Company: portrait of Charles MacGibbon, p. 14

Bob Marshall: Lochore Castle model, p. 186

National Galleries Scotland (NGS): Cormiston Towers, p. 13 (Gift of Mrs Ridell in memory of Peter Fletcher Riddell 1985); Royal Volunteer Review, 7 August 1860 by Samuel Bough, Plate 2 (Presented by Charles T. Combe 1887); A View of Tantallon Castle with the Bass Rock by Alexander Nasmyth 1816, Plate 3 (Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund 1994) (all Creative Commons CC by NC)

National Library of Scotland (NLS): detail of Pont map, p. 42; Stirling Castle by Slezer, p. 43; MacGibbon and Ross at work, p. 57; Haggs Castle by Miss Mildmay, p. 161; Hatton House, pp. ii (detail) and 123

National Trust for Scotland (NTS): Crathes Castle after the fire, p. 127

Richard Paxman: Crosbie Castle, p. 88; Aiket Castle in 2019, pp. 154–55

Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS): Untitled castle, p. 18; Ardstinchar Castle, p. 114; Costumed Figures, Plate 1; Tantallon Castle by David MacGibbon, Plate 4; Edinburgh Castle with Bryce’s Tower, Plate 29

Ken Smyth, artist: portraits of David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross, p. 2

Tate: Edinburgh Castle: March of the Highlanders by J.M.W. Turner c. 1834–5, Plate 30 (Bequeathed by R.H. Williamson 1938)

David Walker Junior: Cairnbulg Castle, Plate 20

Wikipedia Creative Commons – Almond Castle, p. 134 (Rob Burke CC BY-SA 2.0); Stirling Head, Plate 16 (Stefan Schaffer, Lich CC BY-SA 3.0)

All images not listed here are the author’s own.

PART 1

The Men

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MacGibbon and Ross,

Architects and Scholars

Illustration

David MacGibbon (1831–1902).

Illustration

Thomas Ross (1839–1930).

Introduction

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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 the development of Scottish castellated architecture, along with passionate conservationist campaigning, had never before been attempted and has never yet been surpassed. The scale of their 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 survey town houses, tolbooths, sundials, and some church buildings. It is for this survey that MacGibbon and Ross are best known today; the five volumes are still used by those who share their interest in castles.

The five volumes represent only a part of their scholarly literary output, however. ‘While engaged upon their work on The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, the authors were frequently brought in contact with the various ecclesiastical structures throughout the country, and they naturally availed themselves of such opportunities to make notes and sketches of these interesting edifices’ (1: Preface). In 1896–97 the indefatigable pair went on to complete The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland: From the Earliest Christian Times to the Seventeenth Century in three volumes. This was yet another large-scale project. MacGibbon and Ross estimated that ‘In the 8 volumes already published about 1500 subjects have been described and illustrated by about 4270 figures, the latter consisting of measured plans, sections and elevations with general views and details.’1 Additionally, both were regular contributors of articles to learned journals on Scottish architectural history and archaeology.

The two men were also working architects with a successful practice that made its mark upon the cityscape of Victorian Edinburgh and beyond. Buildings such as the Maitland Hotel in Shandwick Place, the former Edinburgh Royal Maternity Hospital at 79 Lauriston Place, Morningside Free Church (now the Baptist Church) and the middle-class houses of Merchiston Gardens and Ravelston Terrace were designed by the MacGibbon and Ross practice. Moreover, both MacGibbon and Ross were immensely productive beyond their established work as architects and authors. David MacGibbon became Lt Colonel of the 2nd Battalion of the Queen’s City of Edinburgh Rifle Brigade, as an excellent shot and swordsman. He was also a keen photographer and founding member of the Edinburgh Photographic Club and a widely travelled expert on French ecclesiastical architecture. He became President of the Edinburgh Architectural Association in 1880. Thomas Ross, with few of the birth advantages of MacGibbon, nevertheless achieved much in his long life in addition to his architectural partnership and writing collaboration with David MacGibbon. During the lifetime of David MacGibbon, Thomas Ross was at least partly in the shadow of his senior partner but later became one of the first commissioners of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), an active elder of St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Vice President of the Old Edinburgh Club, Vice President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and a contributor to the National Art Survey of Scotland in the 1920s.

Both David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross had those qualities of inquisitive interest, enthusiasm, attention to detail, commitment, persistence and determination that carry scholars through fruitful research projects. In their architectural practice they were successful businessmen, but they were also passionate and romantic men; they campaigned with passion for heritage, a century ahead of their time, and they were lured by the romance of castles, in the wake of the Romantic Movement of the eighteenth century. Their lives spanned the Victorian era and typified the earnest industry of the Victorian professional middle and upper classes. Both were awarded honorary doctorates late in life for their contributions to Scottish history: MacGibbon by the University of St Andrews in 1899 and Ross by the University of Edinburgh in 1910. These two men made a great contribution to the life of Victorian Scotland, yet the story of their lives has never been fully told. Their existence has been largely forgotten, save by the many Scottish castle enthusiasts who still regularly consult The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland.

Victorian Scotland

The lives of MacGibbon and Ross reflect many of the attributes we associate with the great figures of the Victorian period: confidence, industry and a pushing back of the boundaries of intellectual exploration and discovery. This was a time of larger-than-life achievements by inventors, engineers, scientists and polymaths. The Western world was in the middle of the second industrial revolution, on the cusp of the widespread use of motor cars, cameras, telegraphs, electric lighting, chromolithographic colour printing, films, cars, flight and X-rays. There were rich seams of literature reflecting Victorian lives; Thomas Ross, later in life, would relate anecdotes about encountering Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Carlyle and William Thackeray in Edinburgh. The Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture presided over a lively cultural world – although it never awarded full recognition to David MacGibbon and it only extended a hand to Thomas Ross in his old age.

Queen Victoria’s reign (1837–1901) saw great changes in Scotland. In addition to huge improvements in technology and communication in the middle of the century, rapid population growth meant that MacGibbon and Ross lived through a time of enormous social change. The expansion of the middle classes, in both numbers and wealth, created a high demand for goods and services. The population of Edinburgh almost doubled in both MacGibbon’s and Ross’s lifetimes. As architects, MacGibbon and Ross were well placed to capitalise on the need for more housing and for homes that displayed the status of their new and wealthy owners. Glendinning and MacKechnie point out that between 1850 and 1914 almost 1,000 new civic, public and religious buildings were constructed in Edinburgh.2 The second half of the nineteenth century was a time when Scottish architectural landscapes were crowded with great names. The architecture of David Bryce, Walter Newall, David Rhind, Charles Wilson, Alexander Thomson, John Dick Peddie and Charles Kinnear, James Maitland Wardrop, Rowand Anderson, Peter MacGregor Chalmers, Hew Maitland Wardrop, Robert Lorimer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and many others transformed the cities and towns of Scotland.

Important for the success of The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland was the expansion of print culture, which whetted the appetite of a growing and better-educated audience for information and entertainment. New technology meant more and cheaper books in print, although the price of MacGibbon and Ross’s volumes was high. The fervour of historical romanticism whipped up by the novels of Sir Walter Scott at the beginning of the nineteenth century was still a part of popular culture throughout the Victorian period – Waverley Station, opened in Edinburgh in 1846, was named in tribute to Scott – and Scottish castles featured prominently in a number of the Waverley novels. The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland fulfilled a desire for more and better knowledge about these buildings and tapped into the public’s taste for Gothic Revival architecture.

Further, the expansion of the railways opened up Scotland, making rural areas accessible to all and allowing MacGibbon and Ross to make excursions to remote castles across Scotland. The railway infrastructure, coupled with an increase in leisure time, also led to the rapid development of the tourism market. By the late eighteenth century, Scotland had already become a destination of choice for European and English cultural devotees, entranced by the romantic epic verses of the blind poet ‘Ossian’ and the