Archived in the landscape? Community, family and partnership:promoting heritage and community priorities through the Argyll estate papers

This article discusses pathways to successful partnership working between a significant private archive of a major Scottish landed estate and family, its local community, the wider academic context, and public and charitable agencies. The archives of the Argyll estates and family are housed at their seat, Inveraray Castle, and represent one of the most important private collections in Scotland, encompassing political, social, cultural and economic content over a large geographical area and a long chronology. As such it has obvious academic attractions, which this article explores, but it is also a vital local resource for communities who used to or currently reside on the Argyll estates, as well as genealogists, and family historians. This article uses the Argyll Papers as a case study to explore the ways in which estate archives can animate and illuminate community and heritage priorities in remote and rural areas of great socio-economic fragility.