26 November 2009: Dumgoyach, Stirling

In the last year, some 128,000 items, from photographs and drawings to historic books and postcards, have been added to the RCAHMS collection.

Among the more unusual additions are two oil paintings by the nineteenth century topographical artist William Barry. Paintings of archaeological subjects are relatively rare, and the work of Barry – an Edinburgh-based photographer and artist who concentrated on landscape composition in the later years of his career – is particularly noteworthy.

The picture here is a digital scan of an oil painting of the stone row at Dumgoyach, Stirling and dates from around 1880. This is the earliest known view of the monument, and shows it in significantly more intact condition than later views. How much this is a true record of the site and how much is artistic interpretation is yet to be established. The second painting by Barry is a watercolour of Dumbarton rock dating from around 1878.

RCAHMS collection is recognised internationally and continues to grow year on year, with hundreds of thousands of new items relating to Scotland's built heritage being deposited by companies, institutions and individuals.