Skye, Coire-chat-achan

NG62SW 12 6208 2263

(NG 6208 2263) A scattered heap of stones is all that remains of Coire-Chatachan, the old mansion-house of the Chief of the Mackinnon's, where Johnson and Boswell were enteretained in 1773 (Donaldson 1923). When Carruthers published his edition of the Tour, in 1852, Coire-Chatachan was in possession of a great-grandson of Johnson's entertainer. In 1889, however, Dr Hill found the house a ruin, the yard in use as a sheepfold (Isham Collection 1936).

M E M Donaldson 1923; Isham Collection 1936

Coire-Chatachan is an oblong structure 10.8m long externally by 5.5m wide, and its long axis NE-SW. The walls, which are of rubble masonry bonded with mortar, stand generally to a height of about 1.0m and have been extensively revetted on the SE; their tops coincide with the present level of the interior which has been used as a rubbish pit. The best preserved portion of the house is the NE angle which stands to a height of about 5.0m with the jamb of a door (with check) remaining in situ in the SE wall. The present owner (Mr McLachlan, Coire-Chatachan) informed me that it is only in recent years that two windows which formerly existed in the same wall have collapsed.

The house now forms part of a group of byres and enclosures belonging to the croft of Coire-Chatachan centred NG 620 226.

Visited by OS (C F W) 13 June 1961

A farmstead comprising three buildings arranged around a courtyard, of which the central building is unroofed, is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Isle of Skye 1881, sheet xlvi). The house described above by the OS is the unroofed building.

The buildings are also shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10560 map (1968).

Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 3 December 1996