Building record MHG53725 - Stone built house (E), Clashmore

Recorded as part of survey of Clashmore township by Historic Assynt.

Structure E (NC 04029 31140) consists of a single substantial stone built rectangular structure aligned NNE-SSW.

It measures 12 x 4.5m internally, survives only one course above ground and shows no signs of internal walls. The entrance is in the centre of the northwest long wall. No outbuildings or enclosures are associated with it. Uniquely in Clashmore it has been respected by the model farm dyke which detours around it. The story locally is that when the model farm was being created the house was occupied by a lady with a reputation as a witch and so no one dared try and evict her and demolish the house. The substantial outer walls, lack of internal stone divisions and central doorway suggest that the house followed the standard later nineteenth century croft house pattern with wooden internal divisions. Most of the surviving croft houses built at Clashmore immediately after the creation of the model farm are of this type, so perhaps this house was very new at the time the model farm was created. <1>