Description

Probably around 1835; altered after fire around 1990. Single storey and attic, pair of three-bay cottages (converted to single dwelling). Originally farmhouse for Crachan Farm. Rubble with large stone lintels and roughly squared quoins; harl to west gable. Reed-thatched roof with striking thatched eyelid dormerheads over attic windows.

Roughly symmetrical entrance (south) elevation. Three-bay west cottage with centre door below small attic window. East cottage with small gabled rustic porch at centre. Regular window openings to remaining bays, ground floor windows slightly larger than those at attic. Rear elevation with two small stone outshots and five later rooflights.

Six- and eight-pane glazing patterns in timber sash and case and casement windows. Boarded timber doors. Coped ashlar and harled stacks with cans.

Interior: altered after fire but retaining some early detail including fireplace at east end with massive stone lintel. Timber fire surround in attic bedroom and timber dog-leg staircase.

Ancillary Buildings: single storey rubble ancillaries forming L-plan with timber lintels, small windows and timber doors.

Statement of Interest

Crachan Cottage is a rare survival with its unusual thatched eyelid dormers reminiscent of English vernacular and echoing a style adopted by the Breadalbane Estate in the 19th century. Similarly-detailed thatched dormers can be seen at a number of estate buildings, notably at James MacLaren's Kirkton Cottages at Fortingall (also listed) of 1889.

Some years before the New Statistical Account of 1842 was written, Sir Niel Menzies, Bart opened a carpet manufactory at Crachan. The Rev Duncan Dewar, notes that Sir Niel made "laudable and assiduous exertions in promoting every species of improvement connected with mechanics and agriculture". Employing between 20 and 30 hands, the manufactory had "an annual consumption of about 600 stones of wool", and the carpets were marketed, amongst other places, at Dundee. During the 1860s and 1870s the firm was run by the McNab family, and had passed to Robert Fraser by the 1880s.

A fairly complex water course structure in the garden at Crachan is evidence of the skilled utilisation of the natural water source at Camserney. The natural flow of water below the Falls of Camserney is routed off the Camserney Burn above Crachan Farm before rejoining the Burn below the mill. The New Statistical Account mentions the 'cascades' at Camserney along with those at Keltnie, Tummel and Moness, and describes them as 'tortuous'. The water is known to have run through a number of local sites as well as a nearby "wheel wright-mill which has also a saw-mill conjoined" (New Statistical Account) and the Camserney Smithy and Mill.

It is among a relatively small number of traditional buildings with a surviving thatched roof found across Scotland. A Survey of Thatched Buildings in Scotland, published in 2016 by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), found there were only around 200 buildings of this type remaining, most of which are found in small rural communities. Thatched buildings are often traditionally built, showing distinctive local and regional building methods and materials. Those that survive are important in helping us understand these traditional skills and an earlier way of life.

Formerly listed as Crachan Cottages, Camserney. Listed building record revised in 2008.

Listed building record revised in 2019 as part of the Thatched Buildings Listing Review 2017-19.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17838210

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]