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Duchal House

house in Inverclyde, Scotland, UK

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ5311257
Source-derived summary

Duchal House is an 18th-century mansion and estate near Kilmacolm, Scotland. It is located in Inverclyde, in the former county of Renfrewshire. Duchal was acquired by the Porterfield family in the 16th century. The present house was built in 1710 and extended in 1768. It was owned by Lord Maclay until 2018. The house is protected as a category A listed building, and the grounds are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens.

History

The lands of Duchal were held by the Lyle family from the 13th century, based at Duchal Castle, now a ruin. In 1544 Duchal was acquired by John Porterfield, and in 1710 his descendant Alexander Porterfield constructed a new house. This building now forms the south range of the present house. Formal gardens had been laid out by around 1750.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Duchal House” is house in Inverclyde, Scotland, UK. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Duchal, House and house, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1710, 1768, 2018, 1544—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Duchal, House and house is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “house in Inverclyde, Scotland, UK” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5311257. Authority coordinates are 55.877, -4.633. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1710, 1768, 2018 and 1544.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. 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

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Duchal House”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Duchal House primary sources, Duchal House archive and Duchal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. 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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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Duchal House” 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.