MacGibbon and Ross

David MacGibbon LLD was born in Edinburgh, into a family of builders, and was educated at the Royal High School.

These properties had to be sold in the early 1880s following the crash of the City of Glasgow Bank, to avoid the bankruptcy of MacGibbon's cousins.

While on holiday in July 1884, MacGibbon's son William was killed and his daughter Rachel permanently injured when a sandbank collapsed on them.

Although he published The Five Great Churches of Galloway in 1899, by that year he was too ill to attend the University of St Andrews to accept an honorary degree.

In later life he was living with his family at 23 Learmonth Terrace, whilst his office (with Ross) was at 65 Frederick Street in Edinburgh's New Town.

He was born at Wardheads, Errol, and attended local schools before going to Glasgow around 1855 to work as an assistant to architect Alexander Kirkland.

After MacGibbon's removal to the continent, Ross managed the practice alone, and also continued to make sketching trips for their ongoing publications.

Ross himself was appointed as a founder commissioner of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in 1908, and was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1910.

He died three years after his wife, at the age of 91, and was survived by his son James MacLaren Ross, also an architect, and two daughters.

Their published works are still considered definitive today, comprising as they do a "totally comprehensive survey of Scottish architecture prior to the Restoration.