ECHOES of Inveraray’s murkier past have actually become part of its attraction.
In the 1800s, Inveraray Jail housed the undesirables of Argyll society, from convicted killers to the insane, to children caught stealing apples, in damp, cramped cells bleakly positioned on the edge of Loch Fyne.
Today, the jail is a living museum, where actors tell stories of former inmates and visitors can try out punishments like the crank machine and whipping table, or take a nap on a ‘guard bed’, a plank mattress with a hard wooden pillow that was introduced after complaints that life for prisoners was too comfortable.