Parks and Gardens record MHG40023 - Tigh Dige, S of Flowerdale House

Summary

No summary available.

Location

Grid reference Centred NG 8137 7526 (50m by 50m) (Buffered by site type)
Map sheet NG87NW
Geographical Area ROSS AND CROMARTY
Old County ROSS-SHIRE
Civil Parish GAIRLOCH

Map

Type and Period (1)

Full Description

The original house known as Tigh Dige was built on a field below where present Flowerdale House stands. It was a 'black house', built of turf, roofed with large thin turfs, and surrounded by a moat or ditch. It was in existence about 1480.
S Gordon 1935.

(NG 8137 7526) The old Tigh Dige and its gardens and outbuildings stood in the field on seaward side of paddock (in which is the 'Place of Justice' - NG81NW 7) below Flowerdale House. The Tigh Dige itself was a house in a ditch or moat. Its remains still existed up to time of late Sir France MacKenzie in the centre of this field but agricultural operations have entirely obliterated them. The lines of garden walls can still be traced in the part of the field lying to east. This was Gairloch home of Hector Roy MacKenzie, founder of family in latter part of fifteenth century. The Tigh Dige is said to have been originally a turf hut, with a roof made of sticks and divots. Kenneth MacKenzie erected on same site, within the same moat, about middle of seventeenth century, a more substantial building, which was called the Stank House or Moat House, and continued to be home of the family until 1738, when Sir Alexander Mackenzie erected present residence called Flowerdale House.
J H Dixon 1886.

The garden walls of Tigh Dige were still visible about 1931.
D MacDonald, A Polson and J Brown 1931.

The site of moated house indicated by Dixon (J H Dixon 1886) is a very marshy area unsuitable for building, save for a natural grassy hillock planted with trees centred at NG 8137 7526, 80m NW of the place of justice (See NG87NW 7). It is steepest on S. side and less well defined/ defined on other three. On flat top of it, several large earthfast stones suitable for building purposes can be seen, but they form no pattern of a structure. No moat is visible, but 0.3m high vague grass-covered banks of stones, probably garden walls mentioned by Dixon (J H Dixon 1886), are in evidence immediately to E of hillock.
Site surveyed at 1/2500. Visited by OS (N K B) 6 April 1965.

Sources/Archives (3)

  • --- Text/Publication/Volume: Dixon, J H. 1886. Gairloch in north west Ross-shire: its records, traditions inhabitants and natural history with a guide to Gairloch and Loch Maree. 97, 102.
  • --- Text/Publication/Volume: Gordon, S. 1935. Highways and Byways in the Western Highlands. 34.
  • --- Text/Publication/Volume: MacDonald, Polson and Brown, D, A and J. {1931}. The book of Ross, Sutherland and Caithness, Orkney and Shetland: descriptive, historical and antiquarian notes. 79.

Finds (0)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Related Monuments/Buildings (1)

Related Events/Activities (0)

Record last edited

Jan 28 2008 12:00AM

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