A Regency Revival

Ardgowan House, Renfrewshire The seat of Sir Ludovic Shaw Stewart, Bt

A major Scottish house never previously covered in the pages of Country Life is coming back to life. John Goodall reports on this remarkable building and its fascinating story

- John Goodall

ARDGOWAN is an almost miraculous survival: an outstanding Regency house set in parkland amid the sprawling development that extends along the south side of the Firth of Clyde from Glasgow. Through the efforts of two generations of the Shaw Stewart family, it is now emerging from a difficult 20th century and relative obscurity. It has an extraordinary story to tell.

The association of the Shaw Stewarts with the estate can be traced back to 1404, when Robert III, King of Scotland, granted Ardgowan to his natural son, John Stewart, as part of a wider reorganisation of the Barony of Renfrew (which became Renfrewshire).

John presumably assumed possession of an existing residence on the site: Inverkip Castle, which took its name from the village immediately south of Ardgowan on the banks of the Firth of Clyde.

This castle emerges from historical obscurity during the Anglo-Scottish wars of the early 14th century, when its direct connection to the sea made it a useful English base. In 1304, for example, Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, wrote to Edward I (whom he was then serving) explaining that he could not find a cart big enough to move the frame of a ‘great engine’ or catapult at Inverkip. Presumably, it had arrived by ship. The King wrote back to urge its immediate delivery, together with stone shot and lead counterweights, for the siege of Stirling.

Nothing is securely known about the form or architectural development of Inverkip Castle. It could, indeed, have stood on a different site altogether. Nevertheless, it is presumed that a medieval tower about 200 yards south of Ardgowan House formed part of the castle’s late-medieval fortifications (Fig 2). Certainly, it stands on a commanding site protected by steep slopes.