Walking down from the castle you come to Argyll’s Lodging: built in two phases, 1630s and 1670s.  The first phase is modelled on the French townhouses called ‘hôtels’ which are set back from the street at the end of large courtyard behind a wall. 

The gateway, dating to the 1670s, was directly modelled on an example published in Alessandro Francini’s Livre d’Architecture, published in Paris in 1631, but translated into English in 1669.  Francini and his brother, Tommaso, were Florentine hydraulic engineers and garden designers – their patron was Marie de’ Medici, mother of King Louis XIII of France (of Cardinal Richelieu and 3 Musketeers fame).

Picture credits: Stirling4Europe 2021