4 Glenelg Village

(Kirkton of) Glenelg. In 1786 John Knox described Glenelg as 'inhabited by 900 people, having a church, a manse, a public house, with a groupe of mean huts, and the most miserable looking people that I had seen...'; he continued with the advice that 'there are few places in the Highlands where the benefits of a town would be more generally felt than at this place'. Two years later the village had been 'lately planned out' for Macleod of Macleod, who desired to establish a 'manufacture for coarse cloths' here. A sturdy pair of terraces facing each other across Main Street were erected at this time and remain a distinguishing feature, the austerity of their whitewashed and slated fronts eased with the later addition of gabled porches and tiny gardens. In 1848 there were 148 families living in Kirkton; today it is a quiet backwater. The short main street, still approached by a handsome tree-lined avenue, is completed with a few 19th and 20th century harled cottage.

Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2007. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk