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20 Aug 2018

Inverewe House: phoenix from the ashes

Written by Ben Reiss
A black and white photo of Inverewe House with its white stone walls and grey slate roof.
Archive photograph of Inverewe House
Lady Mary Mackenzie of Gairloch bought the land that became the Inverewe estate for her son Osgood in 1863. Osgood transformed the barren peninsula into a world-renowned garden surrounding his home, Inverewe House.
Expand image 1: A black and white photo of a grand turreted country house, seen at the end of a drive and at the head of a garden. An older man sits on a wall in the foreground, looking towards the house. Expand image 2: A black and white photo of a grand turreted country house, with clouds of smoke billowing around its roof. Crowds of people almost fill the lawn and drive, watching it. Expand image 3: A black and white photo of a turreted country house, in an almost ruined state with the roof missing. A car is parked by the front of the house. Expand image 4: A black and white photo of a ruinous country house, with the roof missing. A person stands inside the walls and looks up at the plant-covered stonework. Expand image 5: A black and white photo of people working on a ruinous country house, with the roof missing. Somebody pushes a laden wheelbarrow in the foreground, while others seem to be removing stones from the top of the remaining walls. Expand image 6: Looking up at Inverewe House from the bottom of a terraced garden, with stone walls running across it. Snow covers the ground. Expand image 7: A black and white photo of a grand country house being built, with tradespeople walking in the foreground. Expand image 8: A black and white photo of Inverewe House, seen from across the garden and through the trees.

The Morton Charitable Trust has been funding fieldwork on the National Trust for Scotland’s photographic collections since 2014. In 2018–19, this work will further raise the profile of the collections through research, articles, talks and dedicated projects. The project will also involve the digitisation of the Margaret Fay Shaw photographic archive of mid-20th-century Hebridean life, leading to an updated database with high-quality images.

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