Matnach

NJ52NW 79 5256 2842

See also NJ52NW 77 and NJ52NW 78.

This cottage is situated in unimproved ground on the crest of a steep WNW-facing slope 330m NNW of West Tayloch farmsteading (NJ52NW 157). It measures 10.8m from ENE to WSW by 5.4m transversely over grass-grown stone walls 0.75m in thickness and up to 1m in height. There is an entrance midway along the SSE side, and to the S and SW of the cottage there is an L-shaped garden, which has an entrance leading onto a track on the SSE.

The cottage is depicted as roofed on both the 1st and 2nd editions of the OS 6-inch map (Aberdeenshire, 1870, sheet xliii and 1902, sheet xliii.NW), but it appears to have assumed the name Matnach only in the late-19th century, probably after the abandonment of the small steading (NJ52NW 77) and the cottage (NJ52NW 78) to the NW, which both bore the name on the 1st edition of the map.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS), 23 June 1999.