Dedicated to Researching Rosslyn Chapel, The Knights Templar and Scottish Freemasonry

Kilmun parish church from the east showing the Argyll mausoleum to the right.

It is said that the first Campbell to be buried at Kilmun was the son of the “Black Knight of Loch Awe” who was killed in tragic circumstances. This happened a long time before Sir Duncan Campbell of Loch Awe founded Kilmun Collegiate Church in 1442. The original grant of this burial, as reported first in 1818, is supposed to be embodied in a Gaelic verse, the translation of which reads:

“I, Great Lamond of All Cowal, do give unto thee, Black Knight of Loch Awe, a Grave of Flags, wherein to bury thy son, In thy distress.”

This tradition incorrectly was ascribed by Brown in 1908 to Sir Duncan Campbell’s eldest son, Celestine (or Archibald or Gillespie), and is an error which has been repeated in later guide-books.

Sir Duncan Campbell, the first Lord Campbell, was buried in the choir of his Collegiate Church in 1453 with effigies of his wife Marjory and himself placed against the north wall. His grandson and successor, Colin, for whom the first Inveraray Castle was built, became the 1st Earl of Argyll and was instrumental in the creation of both Inveraray (1474) and Kilmun (1490) as burghs. Whilst Inveraray was developed as the county town of the Argylls, Kilmun was kept as their quiet and secluded burying place.

The Collegiate Church

Many of the Earls of Argyll were buried in the choir of the Collegiate Church and in a side chapel to the north of the choir. These include the 2nd Earl who fell at Flodden (1513), it being recorded that Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenurchy who was slain with his chief at Flodden, “wes bureit with his chief Archbald Campbell then Erle of Ergyle in Kilmown, because in the foirsaid feild they deit valiantlie togidder.” The 8th Earl (and Marquis), who was executed at the Restoration for treason (1661) is buried in the side chapel, his body having been taken to Kilmun after his execution with his head following some three years later on its removal from the Tolbooth in Edinburgh where it had been displayed.

The North Aisle (side chapel)

The chancel and North aisle (or side chapel) were nearly fur when the OM Earl wrote in 1669 that the chancel “hath beene full of coffins of my predecessors and ther children”, and that the North aisle, which “Is full, save one place for my mother”, had been “lookt on [as] our buriall place”. His wife, Mary Stewart is in fact buried in the North aisle next to the Marquis. The 9th Earl was executed for treason after leading a failed rebellion against James VII (James II of England) and his body taken to Newbattle Abbey. Later his body: and that of the 10th Earl (and 1st Duke), who died in London; were buried at the same time in Kilmun. In 1703. Subsequently the coffins of the 3rd Duke (died 1761), the 4th Duke (d. 1770) and Elizabeth Gunning; Duchess of Hamilton and wife of the 5th Duke (d. 1790) were placed in the North aisle.

A brass plate in the mausoleum records that Douglas, Duke of Hamilton, a son of Elizabeth Gunning, repaired the “chapel” in 1790. Shortly after, in 1790 the chapel was pulled down and the new enlarged mausoleum erected, designed and built by James Lowrie, architect.

The Mausoleum

The mausoleum, which is separate from the church, is entered from the north and at that time had a pyramidal slated roof. The effigies of Sir Duncan Campbell and Marjory, his wife, were removed from their position in the church and placed under an arch against the south was to the rear of the mausoleum. On either side were two stone platforms, the coffins of the 3rd and 4th Dukes and Elizabeth Gunning berg placed on that to the east. In due course, the coffins of the 5th, 6th and 7th Dukes, of Joan Glassell, the second wife of the 7th Duke, and of their eldest son, John Henry Glassell, who died before his father, were also placed on this east platform.

John, the 9th Duke of Argyll, who married Princess Louise, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, was present, as Lord Lorne, at the internment of his mother, Elizabeth Georgina, in 1878. He was therefore required to give an account of the proceedings to the Queen, his mother-in-law. He wrote that “the vat was draped with black cloth, and the old crimson velvet covered coffins looked ghastly in the half fight”: Probably as a result, in 1890, he refurbished the interior and replaced the slated roof with a domed cast iron roof of 12 sections; in each of which there is a skylight, so that the mausoleum is now quite light inside. The platform was raised by building small vaults to contain the coffins; each with a marble tablet set in front recording the inscription on the coffin.

The last person laid to rest here was the 10th Duke, Niall Diarmid, in 1949. He lies on the west platform between his father, Lord Archibald Campbell, and his uncle, the 9th Duke, John. Also on the west platform are the 8th Duke and Elizabeth Georgina, his wife. There are three vacant spaces.

The 11th Duke, Ian Douglas, the grandson of the youngest brother of Duke John, is buried on Inishail. Thus ended the tong association of the Argylls with Kilmun.

Our race forgot not those of yore,

God takes the load in life they bone,

Their sail is furled, their voyage o’er,

Their souls have reached Christ’s holy shore.