Glencripesdale House

The Factors house, or Land Agent as he would be known in England, situated a few miles east up the coast at Laudale, still exists and is a substantial dwelling in its own right having been built with 9 bedrooms, and has been enlarged further over the years.

Glencripesdale House featured a very distinct and unusual blend of architectural styles including, among other things, white harled walls, Gothic windows and a large tower which resembled a lift-shaft crowned with crowstep gables.

A guest of the family Elizabeth Inglis noted on a visit to Glencripesdale approximately ten years after the house was built that the approach route from the loch was suitably atmospheric: “To reach Glencripesdale house our track up the hill led past an ancient burying ground, impressive in it s loneliness, its ancient trees standing in reverent bending lines, keeping silent guard over the grey recumbent tombs”.

[1] The house was occupied by the British military during World War II, specifically the Commando units, who needed extreme countryside to practice manoeuvres on.

In 1966 the house was blown up by the Army as part of an exercise with consent of the Forestry Commission,[2] and due to the unique construction, being built of reinforced concrete, required two attempts to blow up.