James Gillespie Graham

James Gillespie Graham (11 June 1776 – 21 March 1855) was a Scottish architect, prominent in the early 19th century. Much of his work was Scottish baronial in style. A prominent example is Ayton Castle. He also worked in the Gothic Revival style, in which he was heavily influenced by the work of Augustus Pugin. However, he also worked successfully in the neoclassical style as exemplified in his design of Blythswood House at Renfrew seven miles down the River Clyde from Glasgow. Graham designed principally country houses and churches. He is also well known for his interior design, his most noted work in this respect being that at Taymouth Castle and Hopetoun House.

Graham was born in Dunblane on 11 June 1776. He was the son of Malcolm Gillespie, a solicitor. He was christened as James Gillespie. His initial work was as a joiner before he became an architect.

In 1810, under the name James Gillespie, he was living in a flat at 10 Union Street at the head of Leith Walk in Edinburgh. In 1810, he also designed Culdee Castle at Muthill (he would also design the nearby Muthill Parish Church in 1826). In 1814, Graham designed St Andrew's Cathedral in Glasgow (built 1817).

In 1817, Alexander Macdonald, a member of Clan Macdonald of Clanranald, engaged Graham to design the Glenfinnan Monument, a stone tower to commemorate the Highlanders who fought on the side of Charles Edward Stuart during the Jacobite rising of 1745. The tower was completed shortly after Macdonald's death but debts were left outstanding to Graham. Graham had designed other buildings for Clan Macdonald including Arisaig Church (1809) and Arisaig Glen House (since demolished).

Graham worked with Pugin on a number of projects as they were friends and Pugin had an engraved set of drawing compasses with Graham's name. Two projects they collobroated on together included the design of Murthly House (1829 to 1831) and works at Taymouth Castle (1837 to 1842).

Some of his principal churches include St Andrew's Cathedral in Glasgow, and St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Highland Tolbooth Church (now The Hub) in Edinburgh. His houses include Cambusnethan House in Lanarkshire.

He was responsible for laying out the Moray Estate of Edinburgh's New Town, and for the design of Hamilton Square and adjoining streets in the New Town of Birkenhead, England, for William Laird, brother-in-law of William Harley, major developer of the New Town upon Blythswood Hill in Glasgow. According to the writer Frank Arneil Walker he may have been responsible for the remodelling of Johnstone Castle, Renfrewshire.

He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland on 24 March 1817. He designed and built a house at 34 Albany Street in Edinburgh's New Town for himself and his wife and lived there from 1817 to 1833.