The Corr
Croft (Period Unassigned)
Site Name The Corr
Classification Croft (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Croft Complex
Canmore ID 93288
Site Number ND23NW 60
NGR ND 20250 35706
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/93288
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- Council Highland
- Parish Latheron
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Caithness
- Former County Caithness
Traditional Caithness croft complex. 2 L-plan, single storey rubble ranges, comprising dwelling of longhouse type facing SW with byre in end SE bay with gable entrance (former access from kitchen). Barn and stable range at right angles, with garden enclosed; further L-plan range, one arm of which backs onto garden, with later 19th century hen house, wash house and cartshed. Dwelling has 2 doors, small windows, ridge and end stacks and rush thatch roof. Henhouse and workshop range also thatched; remainder with corrugated iron or asbestos roofing. Formerly all of cruck construction. (Historic Environment Scotland List Entry)
The Corr is unique in the survival of an original extended longhouse, but it also represents the natural growth into a small self sufficient working farm of many functions with ranges of buildings still surviving; it has been lived and worked in the traditional way until relatively recently (Andrew PK Wright :Caithness Redundant Buildings Inventory)
Relatives of the last resident advise they took over the property circa 1820s. The last resident's (who crofted from the 1950s into her 90s) ancestor having enlarged the croft extensively with the aid of his father John Keith, a fisherman by occupation, who'd fought in the Crimean War. In the early 1900s two bedrooms were added. The main dwelling having flagstone floors from the Byre to the Closet. The main hearth had a particularly large lintel to counter balance the heating of two large cauldrons of water for the laundering of clothes. The interior remains virtually unchanged since this time. The last room to be added to the accommodation was an end room constructed in the late 1930s. Electricity and a phone line were only recently installed.
The phasing of construction at the site is thought to have been living area/ byre first with barn and stables next, then workshop (a thriving smithy), calf house, laundry room, hen house and cart garage. North of the byre survives a cast iron ring, set in lead, used for the tethering of horses.
Field Visit (13 July 2015)
ND 20250 35707 Early 19th century croft complex, consisting of longhouse, byre, barn and stable range, hen house, wash house and cart shed. The listed building description states that the dwelling, hen house and workshop range all have rush-thatched roofs. The buildings have been vacant for some years now, and have been on the Buildings at Risk (BAR) Register since 2008 (BAR reference number 3623), at which time it was already recorded that the thatched roof was in poor condition and suggested it did ‘not appear to have been maintained for several years’. The roofs of the ancillary buildings to the south west of the longhouse have large areas of thatch missing, exposing the interiors of the buildings. Part of the longhouse range has been covered with a temporary corrugated iron covering, whilst the section to the west remains uncovered. The thatch that can be seen on the longhouse is heavily overgrown with vegetation.
Visited by Zoe Herbert (SPAB) 13 July 2015, survey no.117
