Argaty (aka "Ardgaty"), derives from the Gaelic aird, "height", and gaoth, "wind" and means "windy height". Argaty is a farm estate located just over a mile northeast of Doune, Perthshire, Scotland. The present Argaty House, now largely destroyed by fire, dates from the 19th century with baronial additions in the 1860s and 1920s.
Administratively Doune is under the control of Stirling Council.
Today, Argaty farm is host to central Scotland's only red kite feeding station where visitors can come and watch the birds, recently reintroduced to their former natural habitat through a program managed by the RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage.
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Argaty was originally part of the Doune estate, property of the Dukes of Albany, ancestors of the Clan Stewart of Balquhidder. When Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany was executed for treason by King James I of Scotland in 1425, the Stewart lands were forfeited to the Crown, and Argaty was among the forfeited properties. After the forfeiture the Crown granted the lands of Argaty to John Sinclair, Esquire to the King's Chamber. The property then passed to Sinclair's younger daughter who married Patrick Home (or "Hume") of Polworth, and Argaty thus came into the possession of the Home family. About a century and a half later the property again fell upon a daughter, Mary Hume, who married George Stewart, 2nd of Ballachallan, whose descendants took the name Home-Stewart (or Hume-Stewart). Ironically, through this circuitous route of forfeiture and marriages the property of Argaty actually returned to the descendants of the same Stewarts who lost it three centuries earlier.[1]
In 1758 Argaty was inherited by George Hume Steuart of Annapolis, Maryland, son of George Stewart and Mary Home. Steuart held lands in both Maryland and Perthshire and, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775, Steuart left Maryland and returned to Scotland. His son, also named George Hume Steuart (1747–1788), inherited Argaty estate in his turn, changing his name to George Steuart Hume.[2]
On Hume's death in 1788, Argaty passed to Hume's infant daughter Sophia. Hume's younger brothers unsuccessfully sued their niece Sophia for the Scottish inheritance.[1]
On 30 April 2011 a fire broke out in Argaty House. The Central Scotland Fire and Rescue Service estimated the next day that 90% of the building was totally destroyed by the fire.[3]