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Arisaig House by Philip Webb

19th Century Building in Beasdale, Invernessshire, western Scotland – design by Philip Webb architect

30 Aug 2017

Arisaig House, Scotland

Design: architect Philip Webb

Date built: 1863-64

Location: Northwest Scotland

south facade:

e-architect directors visit the only Scottish country house designed by architect Philip Webb

clock tower:

The house is located close to the sea, in a commanding position on the Road to the Isles (Fort William to Mallaig, Highlands of Scotland).

Arisaig House – Philip Webb’s first country house

In 1863 F D P Astley an enlightened and wealthy industrialist from the Midlands in England commissioned Philip Webb (1831-1915) the “Father of the Arts and Crafts movement” to build a Shooting Lodge amid this spectacular West Highland scenery and to include terraced gardens.

public room interior:

interior spaces:

During the Second World War the area was taken over by the Special Operations Executive to train agents for missions in Occupied Europe; Arisaig House was the Headquarters.

building exterior:

Southeast public room complete with Broadwood grand piano:

The area is steeped in history on 20 September 1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie left Scotland for France from Borrodale Beach just below the house following the failure of the Jacobite rising of 1745.

source: Arisaig House

Arisaig House
Beasdale
Arisaig
Invernessshire
PH39 4NR

01687 450730

Arisaig House Architecture

Arisaig House, Philip Webb, 1863-4; rebuilt on smaller scale by I. B. M. Hamilton & Orphoot, Whiting & Lindsay, 1937

Webb’s first country house, built for Francis Dukinfield Palmer Astley, only the bones of which survived a devastating fire in 1935.

Webb’s references to the English parsonage style, beefed up in response to the rugged setting, remain only vaguely discernible in the somewhat indigestible rebuild.

Closest to the original is the east-facing entrance court, where the gothic windows, clocktower and kitchen wing with massive battery of flues are largely Webb’s work.

The oak-finished interior of 1937 and later includes a cherrywood-panelled dining room with Art Deco lighting and a staircase carved with leaves and gamebirds.

Built of local granite rubble with dark whinstone dressings, the house rises from a wooded slope, steeply terraced on the south with a two-tiered walled kitchen garden.