Clachie Burn

The website text produced for Bennachie webpages on the Forest Heritage Scotland website (www.forestheritagescotland.com).

Introduction: The hillside of Bennachie

This moorland was not meant to be lived on. It was a ]'commonty'; common land shared by the neighbouring landlords. People were allowed to use this land for free to graze sheep or cattle. They could also draw on its natural resources of wood, peat, stone and heather. It was not land for growing crops.

In 1801, while people were being forced off land elsewhere, one man decided to live on the rent-free slopes of Bennachie. Other families soon joined him and a farming community grew. In 1859, however, the landlords divided the ownership of the commonty and began to charge rent. Some families could not afford to stay, others were evicted, but a few remained and continued to farm.

Our "Colony" walk will lead you around the remains of the houses that belonged to this short-lived community.

People Story: Descended from the first and himself the last

The people of Bennachie were locally known as "squatters" because they did not pay rent. Yet one nearby resident, James Allan, tells us that locals saw them as respectable people who worked hard.

The Esson family is one of the many families that we know lived at Bennachie. William Esson was among the earliest settlers to the colony. In 1829 he built the farmstead known as Boghead of Tullos with his wife, Jean Petrie, and son, John. This house was the last to be abandoned when his grandson, George, died in 1939.

George Esson, like many of his family, was a stone mason and noted dry stone dyker. He was educated and had lived a short time in America. He returned to Scotland, however, and farmed his father's croft with his wife Mary Ann Knight. You can search for the remains of their home, still visible, at the eastern end of the colony.

Their house is not on our trail but many of the remains of other squatters' houses are. We know that the Findlater family lived in a cottage called Burnside. Their cottage may have been one close to the stream. See if you can spot the last remains of their squatter home as you walk along.

Evidence Story: Scottish Episcopal Palaces Project

In 1996, funded by the Bennachie Centre and the Bailies of Bennachie, the Scottish Episcopal Palaces Project excavated one of the houses at Bennachie.

In 1995, project focused on the area by excavating the pre-Reformation summer palace of the bishops of Fetternear.

These buildings were later converted first into a tower house and then into a mansion for the owners of the Fetternear estate.

The project also wanted to investigate the places where the ordinary families lived on the estate.

The excavations of the Bennachie house revealed a small, rectangular building, only 8 metres long by 5 metres wide. The walls only survived to a low height. In the west end of the building, they found a fireplace with the remains of the last peat fire burnt in the house remaining.

Finds included 19th century pottery, two leather shoes and a metal belt buckle. They also found the bowl of an old clay pipe, used for smoking tobacco.

Carefully placed trenches on the outside of the building shows that this house had a small enclosure, as well as its own garden. In addition, two fields were associated with the house. The people who lived there would have grown their own vegetables and crops as well as keep some livestock.

Mixed within the interior rubble they discovered a small amount of burnt material. It is possible that the roof was burnt and the walls pushed in to force the house to collapse.