Monument record MHG55598 - The Chalet, Knockfarrel

This was a wooden building, encircled by a veranda, similar in character to The Shieling (MHG22633). In the 1920s/1930s Miss Camerons (sisters) ran it. They initiated the idea of teas at Knockfarrel, and then the enterprise was made a reality by the Cromartie Estate providing the chalet. It was very cleverly designed, where the shutters let down to form tables for outdoor teas. In busy times tables were also set out in the more level areas of the surrounding grassland. The Miss Camerons lived in one of the crofts lying immediately at the foot of Knockfarrel slope on the Loch Ussie side, carrying the necessary provisions and water up the slope. Duncan Finlayson remembers the delicious teas with home baking and, in season, strawberries and cream at 2/6 a time – a lot of money in those days. Some visitors to Strathpeffer regarded tea at the chalet as a ‘must’, though his family regarded it as a luxury.
The chalet was in business until the mid 50’s /1960s, when it was run by Flora MacDonald, who had a croft on the south side of Knockfarrel and also carried water up to The Chalet from a well on the croft each day. A number of photographs survive of the chalet (a particularly good one in Uncles 1998 p. 29). The chalet became very dilapidated and derelict, before it finally burnt down in the later 1960s (date not positive) - reputedly an act of arson by a group of boys seen running away from the scene. Remnants of the foundations can still be seen.

Information from Kitty Campbell; Jennifer Haslam; Neil MacDonald; Duncan Finlayson, ARCH Remembering Strathpeffer Project, 2011

Uncles, C. J., 1998. Easter Ross and the Black Isle. Ochiltree: Stenlake Publishing. <1>