Castle Toward
| Castle Toward | |
| Argyllshire | |
|---|---|
 Castle Toward | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NS11516815 |
| Location: | 55°52’10"N, 5°-0’50"W |
| Village: | Toward |
| History | |
| Built 1820 | |
| For: | Kirkman Finlay by David Hamilton |
| Country house | |
| Gothic revival | |
| Information | |
Castle Toward is a nineteenth-century country house on the southern tip of the Cowal peninsula of Argyllshire, overlooking Rothesay Bay towards the Isle of Bute.
The house was built in 1820 by the Glasgow merchant Kirkman Finlay, and it replaced the late mediæval Toward Castle, formerly the ancestral home of the Clan Lamont. The house was greatly extended in the early 20th century, and in the Second First World Wart served as HMS Brontosaurus. After the war it was sold to Glasgow Corporation and was used as an outdoor education facility until its closure in 2014. After a failed community buyout, Toward Castle and the estate were sold by the local council to private owners in 2016.
History
Toward Castle
The original Toward Castle dates from the 15th century and was owned by the Clan Lamont until 1809.[1][2] The castle was extended in the 17th century, but was abandoned after an attack by the Clan Campbell in 1646.
The ruins stand around five hundred yards south-east of the later Castle Toward.[3] Toward Castle is a scheduled monument.[4]
Castle Toward
The present Castle Toward was built in 1820 for Kirkman Finlay (1773–1842), former Lord Provost of Glasgow, as his family's country house. Finlay purchased the Achavoulin estate and renamed it Toward in 1818.[5] It is built in the castellated Gothic Revival style, and was designed by David Hamilton. Edward La Trobe Bateman was involved in garden design work here in the 1880s.[3]
It was from Castle Toward that the second son of Alexander Struthers Finlay – Alexander Kirkman Finlay – emigrated to the colony of Victoria in Australia, and subsequently married the daughter of the then Governor of New South Wales, Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead. The wedding of Nora Robinson and Alexander Kirkman Finlay at St James' Church, Sydney, in 1878 attracted enormous attention in the colony and was extensively reported in the press.[6][7]
Later owned and extended by Major Andrew Coats, of the Coats family of Paisley, Italian plasterwork was installed in the public rooms in 1920. The entire building was restored and enlarged over the course of the 1920s by the architect Francis William Deas, who also laid out most of the current landscaping. The grounds incorporate the ruins of the original Toward Castle, the Chinese ponds, wooded areas, access to the shore, and views over the Firth of Clyde.[3]
HMS Brontosaurus
During the Second World War the castle was requisitioned as a combined operations centre (COC No. 2), and was commissioned as HMS Brontosaurus in 1942.[8] It was a training centre for the amphibious landings that were launched on D-Day, as well as for other raids. Officers and men trained on nearby beaches to use various landing craft. Both Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten during this time visited Brontosaurus. It closed in 1946.
Outdoor education centre
The castle, and 226 acres of woodland, were purchased by the Corporation of Glasgow in 1948. The building was used initially as a residential school for children recovering from illness or living in deprived home conditions. It then became available for residential education for children from all Glasgow Primary Schools and operated for 50 years as an outdoor education centre for children from Glasgow, Renfrewshire and further afield, later passing to a new local council.[9] In the 1990s a company, Actual Reality, was formed to operate the centre, as well as a second council-owned centre at Ardentinny,[9] with high ropes, kayaking, and orienteering, as well as gorge walks and hill walks. The grounds of the centre were used as a filming location for the children's BBC Television series Raven up to and including the seventh series at the start of 2008.[10] The house was also used for residential courses for young people in music and art. The Glasgow Schools' Symphony Orchestra and West of Scotland Schools' Concert Band visited regularly.
The house has been a category B listed building since 1971,[5] and the grounds were added to the national Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland in 2007.[3]
Sale
On 13 November 2009, the council temporarily closed the castle on the recommendation of fire brigade. Several attempts to sell the estate met with local opposition. The castle's former composer-in-residence, John Maxwell Geddes, wrote a Postlude for Strings in protest at plans to sell the castle.[11] The council placed the building on the market in 2010, and in response the South Cowal Community Development Company was formed to explore community ownership of the castle, though their bid was rejected. Another attempted sale fell through., and a second bid by the community company failed. In 2016, the council finally sold the castle for £1.51 million, to Denice Purdie and Keith Punler, who planned to restore the mansion house and grounds to their former glory.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Castle Toward) |
- Castle Toward: Secret Scotland
References
- ↑ "Toward Castle | The Castles of Scotland, Coventry | Goblinshead". https://www.thecastlesofscotland.co.uk/the-best-castles/scenic-castles/toward-castle/.
- ↑ "Toward Castle". Darkisle.com. 1999-07-20. http://www.darkisle.com/t/toward/toward.html. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Castle Toward - Listing: Inventory of Gardens & Designed Landscapes
- ↑ Toward Castle - scheduled monument detail (Historic Environment Scotland)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Castle Toward (Category B) - Listing detail (Historic Environment Scotland)
- ↑ "Family Notices.". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW): p. 1. 8 August 1878. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13414065. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
- ↑ "Mr. and Mrs. Finlay". Australian Town and Country Journal (NSW): p. 17. 17 August 1878. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70594065. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
- ↑ "Combined Training Centre – Castle Toward". http://www.combinedops.com/TRAINING_TOWARD.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-04.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Castle Toward Sell Off". Dunoon Observer. 10 October 2003. http://www.dunoon-observer.com/archive/arcoct200010.html. Retrieved 2015-01-27.
- ↑ Raven (2002– ) at the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ "5,600 sign petition to save Argyll's Castle Toward". The Scotsman. 26 January 2015. http://www.scotsman.com/mobile/lifestyle/heritage/5-600-sign-petition-to-save-argyll-s-castle-toward-1-3670908.