Argyll’s Lodging is the most complete 17th-century town house surviving in Scotland, and an important example of Renaissance architecture. It was purposefully situated on the approach to Stirling Castle, giving its aristocratic owner ready access to the royal court. It also provided a suitable environment within which he could receive, and impress, his sovereign.

The present building is the culmination of four building phases. It owes most of its surviving detail to the embellishments of the 1st Earl of Stirling (1630s) and the 9th Earl of Argyll (1670s). The carved and painted decoration which survives gives an unusually complete view of how the house would have looked to its successive owners.

The oldest part of the present house dates from the mid-16th century; a two-storey dwelling with a hall on the first floor above a kitchen, built for John Traill, a wealthy burgess. This was soon extended to form an L-shaped tower house. In 1629, the house passed to Sir William Alexander, later Lord Stirling. Anticipating a visit by Charles I, he created a private palace, with fine suites of public and private rooms and a lavishly decorated exterior. The architectural finesse is a reflection of Stirling’s wealth and political ambitions. Sadly, he died insolvent in 1640.

The house stood empty until the 1660s, when the 9th Earl of Argyll negotiated purchase. Argyll’s main residence was at Inveraray, in Argyllshire. His Lowland residence hitherto had been Castle Campbel], near Dollar, but that was too far from the limelight and too antiquated.

Argyll extended Stirling’s building to north and south, and enclosed the courtyard behind a screen wall with an elaborate Tuscan entrance gate. New domestic accommodation was added, but the principal rooms of the house remained unchanged. The rare painted decoration in the High Dining Room dates from this period, a precious remnant of the elaborate decoration that may also have adorned the other rooms.

In 1680, Argyll declared against the Test Act, which was intended to secure the loyalty of men of state to the king. Conforming to the religious whims of the monarch was implicit within the act. Unable to accept royal authority or denounce the Covenant, Argyll was declared a traitor and escaped into exile. He was condemned in his absence, and executed in 1685 after leading an uprising in support of Monmouth’s rebellion in England.

Aware of his precarious position, Argyll had drawn up a full inventory of the contents of his Stirling townhouse and turned his possessions over to his wife. That inventory provides an invaluable insight into the contents of an aristocrat’s house in the 17th century.