Drawing

1746

Apprenticed to his father

Recovered from his illness, Robert joined his elder brother John as apprentice to their father, assisting on Inveraray Castle and the extensions of Hopetoun House. His early ambition was to be an artist rather than an architect: his first sketches follow the manner of Salvator Rosa, and his earliest architectural drawings show picturesque Gothic follies.

1748

Partner to his elder brother John

John Adam inherited the family business and the post of Master Mason to the Board of Ordnance and at once took Robert into partnership, later joined by James. Other accounts say Robert himself inherited his father's practice.

June 1748

His father dies, leaving him Dowhill Castle

William Adam died in June 1748. He left Robert part of the Blair Adam estate, including Dowhill Castle, and an extensive library that his son went on to enlarge considerably.

winter 1749 – 1750

To London with the poet John Home

In the winter of 1749–1750 Adam studied English architecture, visiting Inigo Jones's Wilton and Roger Morris's Queen's Hermitage at Richmond; his sketchbook shows a continuing interest in Gothic. His Edinburgh friends also included the philosophers David Hume and Adam Ferguson and the artist Paul Sandby, whom he had met in the Highlands.

from 1750

Summers at Fort George

As the Highlands were fortified after the failed Jacobite revolt, the brothers became the main contractors to the Board of Ordnance at Fort George, a large modern fort near Inverness designed by the military engineer Colonel William Skinner. Visits there occupied them every summer for the next ten years and gave Robert a solid grounding in practical building.