Description

Strachur Smiddy, erected around 1790, is a largely intact and operational blacksmith's shop including a forge and two furnaces (operating as Strachur Smiddy Museum since 1997). In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: Forge Cottage and shop adjoining to rear of Forge Cottage, Strachur.

The Smiddy is a single-storey, one-room building, constructed of lime-washed rubble with its gable end facing the road. It has a large, squat, gable-end chimney stack with thackstane, low eaves and a grey slate roof. There is a timber boarded half-door to the northwest elevation with a small-pane fixed window to the left. There is a stone set between the door and window with a small cast iron loop for tying horses. There is a late 19th century lean-to section with corrugated-iron roof to the rear (southeast) elevation.

The interior, seen in 2015, is a single room with a rubble forge with two furnaces and two pairs of bellows. The floor is partly cobbled. Part of the museum collection includes early boring equipment, a fire extinguisher, an anvil and a large collection of smaller blacksmith and farrier tools.

Statement of Interest

Strachur Smiddy is a rare, largely intact and operational example of a blacksmith's forge, now operating as a local museum. The interior retains many late 18th and 19th century features. The Smiddy contributes to our understanding of rural industrial history in Scotland.

The gable end facing the road and the close proximity of the single window to the low eaves evidences building techniques of the late 18th century in Scotland. The thackstane beneath the chimney stack indicates that the building may have had a thatched roof.

The Smiddy is prominently sited, with its gable end orientated towards the road, on the main thoroughfare through the 'clachan' village of Strachur, situated near Loch Fyne at the north western part of the Cowal Peninsula in Argyll. The Strachur Smiddy was first established around 1790, the period when the Laird of Strachur, General Campbell, was building a large house with parkland to the north of the village. His tradesmens' houses in the village were improved as part of these works with stone walls and slate roofs. Early buildings in Strachur include the Strachan Parish Church built in 1789, and the Clachan Inn (see separate listings). The smiddy stopped operating in 1950, before becoming a working museum in 1997.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: Forge Cottage and shop adjoining to rear of Forge Cottage, Strachur.

Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2015. Previously listed as 'The Smiddy'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17776753

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6