https://www.facebook.com/222590544450010/

Historic Assynt, Old Church, Inchnadamph (2026)

25/05/2026

Just seen the bin lorry drive past and remembered that I meant to post this before the weekend.

Midden at Pollan - the glass is surviving better than much else, but there is an old boot in there that has held up quite well. Suspect it will not be far off a century since this was last actively used, but a lovely insight into how life used to be before those weekly collections. The midden is a wee bit away from the buildings to keep the wildlife away I'd guess, tucked away to keep it all well away from sight and just a glorious insight into a life gone by.

15/05/2026

Some wonderful news for us at Historic Assynt and the archive at the old kirk (and also the Highland archive as explained later). Read on to hear our news and plans.

Following the passing of the architect in Golspie, the Beaton family found a box of old drawings in his office and have asked Golspie Heritage to pass them on to interested historical groups in the county. So with condolances and huge thanks to the Beaton family and to Marion at Golspie heritage (as well as Eileen and Murdo for arranging collection) two documents will be in the old kirk this Summer.

The first is an 1880 feuing plan for new houses at Lochinver (a copy of which is in the National Library online).

The second is very special as to the best of our knowledge no other copy of it has survived. In 1812, during the first round of clearances, the estate planned to create a model village at Lochinver - there are mentions of this in letters in various books about the clearances including Malcolm's but none show what the village would look like.

My guess is that the estate asked the then architect to come up with a plan for the village and like all good architects he made 2 copies - one kept as a back up in case the original was lost. In the intervening years these may well have been passed from architect to architect until now.

As you can see from the image, the planned village never happened, so what we have is a 200 year old linen document of a plan that would have made all of our lives a little different had it been built - a harbour in a completely different place, a courthouse and jail who knows what else.

The issue we do have is that linen is quite delicate and this document is unique, so the plan is that we will loan it to the Highland Archive (for probable perpetuity, but retaining ownership should Assynt ever get a facility and the means to protect it properly) in return for a copy which we can display in the kirk. In all probability we will do the same with the 1880 document as we believe ours to be better preserved.

We are planning a tour of village halls in the next few weeks (more soon) and hope to include either original or copy in that and will certainly have it on display in the kirk this Summer.

Before I go, will apologise in advance for slow replies to any comments on this post. We are off to collect our youngest from uni this weekend.

05/05/2026

The old kirk is has a huge amount of local history within its walls - whether it be census records, crofting feus, school records or histories of the harbour and the fishing industry.

There's also a lovely selection of artwork, which I think may have been done as part of the consolidation work at the Kirk, Calda and Ardvreck in the 1990's. Artists include Cathy Dagg and Matt (anyone know who Matt is?) This one is unsigned, but from the style, looks similar to Matt's others and features the fire at Calda house. Sure you will agree it is stunning - even if just a photo of the original.

Soon we will add the old interpretation panels from Ardvreck - new ones were installed as part of the resurfacing works in the car park and lay bys and they look pretty amazing. As part of the work, we asked for the old ones which were returned yesterday and sitting in my shed until I get out to the kirk in the next day or so.

The kirk will open over the summer months, but if anyone is desperate for a peek, just shout and we will see if we can find a convenient time to open up for you.

22/04/2026

Before I do the history bit, a huge thank you to everyone at Inbhir Brunches for book sale donation - and it is only appropriate with a family connection to Inverkirkaig and Badnaban that this post features a structure somewhere between the two.

I think Malcolm (please confirm this as it might be a memory I made up) once told me that the Badnaban grazings area is both ridiculously small and split with one section around the township and another, separated by a wall along the bealach just before the end of Kirkaig point - with the Badnaban grazings on the point beyond the wall.

This is just on the liminal space a hundred meters or so East of that Bealach, so presumably Kirkaig land?

The first thing I spotted was a wee burn hidden in the trees with a wall running across it. Below the wall the burn splits into three in presumably a man made diversion. Will admit, I did excitedly think it might be a still site, but I've convinced myself otherwise (lack of a building for a start). The three streams run down the hill toward the sea and as the image shows, there is a lovely birch grove all the way down.

I then spotted another copse of birch just above it and realised there was a building there once (dog in the middle of it) and behind him and to the right it looks like a small animal pen leaning against the rectangle of the structure.

My guess - those streams from the burn have been diverted to create a couple of lazy beds and we have a sheiling and a wall built to keep the sheep off the crops. I suspect an estate agent would descibe it as a compact, desirable property.

Did get me wondering whether those grazing boundaries were something artificial introduced by the Sutherland? estate, or if they were much more ancient and how closely those living in Badnaban and Kirkaig would have kept to them in placing their sheilings?

27/03/2026

Sometimes history is a mystery.

Up on the hill between Stoer and Balchladich but is it a standing stone that once stood a little more proud than it does now? A gate post on a long gone fence? Some form of boundary marker? A randomly placed (modern) artistic attempt to look a bit standy stonish?

Literally no idea myself - it is a liminal space between the two townships, couldn't spot much else around it to suggest a missing fence. Does very much look like it was properly upright at one stage, but the pool beside it highlights why it isn't any more.

Bottom pic is the weather when I was up there btw -top one I upped the contrast to make it a little clearer. Fog n' bog - can't think of a better walk.

Thoughts and insights, as ever, much appreciated.

Edit: Forgot to add - around 1m high!

20/03/2026

Don't forget we have our guided walk as part of the Foundation celebrations this afternoon from 2-4. Grand day out expected with some decent weather and a chance to get a little bit of local history along the way. We also have a stall at the event.

If you are coming on the walk, we will meet at the art studio at 1:50 and set off from there.

Hope to see you up there

17/03/2026

This Friday we will be doing a guided walk with those amazing folks at the North West Highlands Geopark as part of the Glencanisp open day. If you pop over to the Assynt Activity page, Chris Goodman has a couple of posts with the whole schedule for what looks like a really great day. Have struggled with sharing posts, so having to flip back and fore to copy/paste into comments.

Hope to see you there - can't think of a better way to learn a little bit of Assynts history (and as the Geopark folks I am sure will mention....much older history in the rocks 😂). Views are pretty spectacular as well and it will also be a perfect opportunity to learn about everything going on up at the glen. Should be a fun day and hope to see you there.

10/03/2026

Was going to post on this one.... but James beat us to it (and has better photos than me). Hugely enjoyed the company of the NOSAS folks for a wander around some of our Assynt History.

06/03/2026

Poll Dhaidh (anyone know how to pronounce this?) is a fascinating wee site. You will have seen a couple of weeks ago that we found a roundhouse there, but there are also at least 4 sheilings and numerous wee sheep pens - we think sheep as a little small for cattle.

John Home noted a single sheiling as part of the Stoer farm at this site which he had down as Grianan and the different stages of decay around the site suggests they might not all have been contemporary. They range from barely discernable rectangles on the ground to remains with the best part of a metre of stones remaining.

A couple of interesting things on the site is that the hillside is beautifully grassy, but the lazy beds down below have become covered with heather. Lazy beds usually indicate good worked ground, so the heather which flourishes in less good ground is odd. Several grand clearance cairns and one of the pictures shows a very crude, but definitely built corridor/walkway at the top of the hill. Not sure what the purpose is or was, but there is a pile of very overgrown stones at the top and a wee sheiling with an amazing view off to the left. I was half thinking chambered cairn, but if so, it is so heavily robbed that it would be a shame to call it one.

Final image is a wee landing stage on the loch below. Would have missed it as its 100m or so down from the houses, but saw something that ended up being nothing. Someone once had a boat here.

01/03/2026

We all love a good sheep fank and what we love most - with all respect to the local crofters - is the collection of old bottles we find at almost every one.

The haul, tucked into the walls of this one out the Clachtoll peat road included lemonade, cola (red and brown), ginger beer and several other unidentified ones (who on earth are Dewars anyway?).

There's more than one history in those walls

Historic Assynt

25/05/2026

15/05/2026

05/05/2026

22/04/2026

27/03/2026

20/03/2026

17/03/2026

10/03/2026

06/03/2026

01/03/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category