Bishop of Argyll
Office in the Episcopal Church of Scotland
The Bishop of Argyll or Bishop of Lismore was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Argyll, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. It was created in 1200, when the western half of the territory of the Bishopric of Dunkeld was formed into the new diocese. The bishops were based at Lismore. The Bishopric of Argyll, like other Scottish bishoprics, passed into the keeping of the Scottish Episcopal Church after the Scottish Reformation.
List of Bishops of Argyll
In 1689, episcopacy was permanently abolished in the Scottish Church. The line of bishops continued within the Scottish Episcopal Church, where the title was often combined with others. In 1847, Alexander Ewing became the first to bear the title Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, and, in 1878, Angus MacDonald became the first Roman Catholic bishop to bear that same title.
References
Further reading
Dowden, John, The Bishops of Scotland, ed.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bishop of Argyll” as office in the Episcopal Church of Scotland. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as office in the Episcopal Church of Scotland. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16146498. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1200, 1689, 1847 and 1878.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bishop of Argyll”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bishop of Argyll primary sources, Bishop of Argyll archive and Bishop research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Bishop of Argyll” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.