Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Rossdhu

Rossdhu (Gael. ros-dubh, `dark headland'), the seat of Sir James Colquhoun, Bart., in Luss parish, Dumbartonshire, on a small promontory of its own name, on the W side of Loch Lomond, 3 ¼ miles S of Luss village. A handsome edifice, built about 1774, it stands near remains of an older tower, and a roofless chapel used as the family burying-place; and has beautiful wooded grounds, partly extending along the lake's shore, partly ascending Creachan Hill and Tom-na-Cona, and partly including islands in the lake. On 29 Sept. 1875 the Queen ` drove up to the house, and, without getting out of the carriage, received a nosegay from Sir J. Colquhoun's little girl and a basket of fruit.' The estate belonged anciently to the Earls of Lennox; was given, about the beginning of the 12th century, to the Dean of Lennox; and went by marriage, in the reign of Robert Bruce, or the early part of the 14th century, to Sir Robert de Colquhoun, whose nineteenth lineal descendant, Sir James Colquhoun, twelfth Bart. since 1625 (b. 1844; suc. 1873), holds 67, 041 acres in the shire, valued at £12,846 per annum.—Ord. Sur., sh. 38, 1871. See also Inchmurrin; Fruin Water; Lomond, Loch; and Dr Wm. Fraser's The Chiefs of Colquhoun and their Country (2 vols., Edinb. 1869).


(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "the seat"   (ADL Feature Type: "residential sites")
Administrative units: Luss ScoP       Dunbartonshire ScoCnty
Place names: ROS DUBH     |     ROSSDHU

Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.