Building record MHG51165 - an Tigh Geal (the White House), Achiltibuie

This building is depicted as ruinous on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1875. It is known locally as 'an Tigh Geal' or 'the White House' on account of it being the first building in the area to have been built with mortar and finished with harling. It is though to have been built to house the unpopular agent, Lt Daniel MacKenzie, sent to supervise this portion of the Cromarty Estate after the 1745 Jacobite Uprising. The house is said to have been orientated so that Lt MacKenzie could oversee the executions on Gallows Hill without the risk of being attacked by an angry mob. Daniel MacKenzie died in Achiltibuie in 1784. The house is believed to have been deserted and abandoned following the death by illness of 'some persons' within at some point prior to 1875. <1>

Some context and history regarding Lieutenant Daniel MacKenzie can be found within the Petitions to the Commission of Forfeited Estates held in the National Archives of Scotland. The following is a summary:

Achiltibuie had been a Tack and home farm of Roderick MacKenzie from 1740 to his death 1762. As second son of James MK of Keppoch and Kildonan (of the Ardloch family) Roderick was a cousin of the landowner, the Earl of Cromarty, and acted as an officer in the Earl's Jacobite Regiment. He was pardoned after the Rebellion and continued as Tacksman under the Commission.

Roderick's wife, Katherine, was a daughter of Alexander MK, III of Ballone. She was a powerful character in her own right and was undoubtably the "young lady of quality whose brother and husband had fought for Prince Charles Edward" fleeing from island to island in Lochbroom with her seven year old son (Alexander) encountered by French Cadets searching for Bonny Prince Charlie after the Rebellion. See "Ships of the '45", author John S. Gibson, published 1967 by Hutchinson & Co, London, pages 94 and 95.

From Roderick's death in 1762 till 1767 Katherine and her son Alexander held Achiltibuie, where she raised the rest of her children, and Alexander began his own family. Then Daniel enters the scene, as a half-pay officer from Col. Keith's Corps, which was reduced in 1763 at the end of the French and Indian War.

In a petition 23 February, 1767 Daniel requests the Widow and her family be removed, and himself be given Tack of Achiltibuie (NAS E746/113/56), beginning a spirited battle of Petitions. Among the claims back and forth Katherine remarks "It is no secret that the Lieut is Courting the Factor's Daughter, and this Snug Farm would Accomadate the young couple properly." (NAS E746/113/60(1))

It is not recorded if Daniel married the Factor Ninian Jeffrie's daughter, but he did win Achiltibuie, and presumably had the harled house built within a few years of 1768. Likely he did have family, possibly a wife who predeceased him leaving children at his own death in 1784 as the 1785 Coigach Rental (GD 305/1/146-7) has Tack of Achiltibuie held by "Heirs of Lt. Daniel Mackenzie". A young man emigrated from Coigach 1785, Daniel Mackenzie, entered the furtrade, and claimed a cousin relationship to the children of Katherine's son Alexander. It is thought that Daniel the furtrader was son of Daniel the Tacksman. <2>

<1> Drake, W B M, 2008, Letter regarding importance of building detailing the history and associations (Text/Correspondence). SHG23433.

<2> Highland Council, 2008, Correspondence between Donald MacDonald-Ross and Highland Council Archaeology Unit (Text/Correspondence). SHG23761.