Raasay, The Manse
Manse (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Raasay, The Manse
Classification Manse (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Free Manse
Canmore ID 99570
Site Number NG53NE 112
NGR NG 55634 36397
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/99570
- Council Highland
- Parish Portree
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Skye And Lochalsh
- Former County Inverness-shire
A spectacular plantation, the inspiration for Sorley MacLean's poem Coilltean Ratharsair, cloaks much of the environs of Clachan and Inverarish. It is largely a mix of 1880s' plantings and later forestry, although the improving 11 th chief enclosed and planted firs and had 'a considerable space marked out for additional plantations' in the late 18th century. In a clearing against a backdrop of unsurpassed grandeur, the church of 1836 (Free Church since 1851) is a simple two-bay box with Y-traceried lancets and a birdcage bellcote, its manse of similar date doubled in size with the addition of a Victorian gabled villa frontage. East of the Inverarish Burn, which plunges through a canopy of spruce and beech, lie the gaunt rubble and brick remains of disused mine workings and several concrete piers of the dismantled railway.
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
NG53Ne 112
Raasay Free Church 'Manse' is depicted on the OS 6" 1st Edition map (Inverness-shire [Island of Skye], sheet 30, 1880).
Information from RCAHMS (HMLB), March 2001.