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Strathchailleach

Bothy (20th Century) (1999), Shepherds Cottage (19th Century)

Site Name Strathchailleach

Classification Bothy (20th Century) (1999), Shepherds Cottage (19th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Srath Na Caillich

Canmore ID 86159

Site Number NC26NW 6

NGR NC 24932 65769

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/86159

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Eddrachillis
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Sutherland
  • Former County Sutherland

Activities

Note (28 June 2022)

NC 24932 65769 NC26NW 6

This shepherd’s cottage, now a bothy, is located about 2km E of Sandwood Bay on the W bank of the Amhainn Srath Chailleach. A 3-bay cottage occupies the SE part of a longer range, the NW part of which is unroofed and there is a pen attached to the NE. The building sits in an area of rough grassland that is bounded by the river on two sides with a bank about 340m in length drawn across the edge of rougher ground to the SW. A smaller enclosure is visible about 65m SW of the cottage, and areas of peat cutting are set 140m to the SSW and 170m to the NW. Much of the wider landscape around Strathchailleach has been heavily drained in relatively recent times.

By 1903 there is a single long range with an outbuilding at its NE corner in this location (Sutherland, sheet iv, 1908). An earlier phase of settlement is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland, sheet iv, 1878) which shows two small, roofed buildings as well as what are probably five enclosures, It is not clear whether one of these buildings is the building which is currently roofed and labelled ‘Bothy’ on the current edition of the OS 1:10,000 digital map.

The Valuation Roll for 1855 records the tenant of the houses and sheep farm at Sandwood (a large farm that presumably included both Strathchailleach and Strathan (NC26SW 12)) as Hugh McKay, but no further detail is given. Strathchailleach was the permanent home of James MacRory Smith (died in 1999 aged 75) between the early 1960s and 1994 and was delisted by the Mountain Bothy Association during this time. It has been suggested that it was the last occupied house without water and electricity in mainland Scotland (Allan 2017, p.71).

Information from HES Archaeological Survey (D M Bratt) 28 June 2022

(Allan 2017, 70-73)

Note

A farmstead, comprising two roofed buildings, two unroofed structures and three enclosures are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1878, sheet iv). One roofed building set within an enclosure is shown on the current OS 1:10,000 map (1988)

Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 8 August 1995.

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