Description

Late 18th to early 19th century, incorporating earlier fabric; gable raised. Single storey, three-bay, rectangular-plan, cruck-framed vernacular cottage with corrugated-iron roof (thatch survives beneath) and evidence of hanging lum to west. Mortared, round-angular rubble, part-harled and whitewashed with flatter angular quarried stone at gableheads.

Southwest (entrance) elevation: symmetrical. Part-glazed timber door to centre with windows in flanking bays.

Southeast (Larchwood Road) elevation: plain gabled elevation.

Northwest elevation: plain gable with small blocked window to right.

Plate glass glazing. Limewashed rubble chimneystack to west, brick chimneystack to east. Plain bargeboarding. Corrugated-iron over thatched roof. Thatch consisting of variety of materials, layers include cereal straw, some light grey clay, grassy turves (laid grass side down), rye straw and broom twigs. Supporting cabers of small-diameter pine and birch. Hanging lum framework timbers above west gable.

Interior: east gable with corbel stone in recess behind later chimney (would have supported ridge tree prior to raising ridge height). West gable with small brick-blocked window to south. Two crucks supporting roof, each of two parts with upper blade fixed to lower upright just above level of present ceiling joists.

Statement of Interest

Property in Care of Scottish Ministers.

This is a rare and fine surviving example of a cruck-framed, thatched cottage. The earliest recorded detail found by Holden and Engl is for 1881 when Sunnybrae Cottage was inhabited by Catherine McDougall, retired dressmaker aged 74. RRDA records show that in 1945 permission for 'alterations and additions' to Sunnybrae were requested for Mrs A Macdonald by Robert Gow, Blair Atholl. Stob thatching technique probably used for constructing thatch.

Cruck framing was a building technique used throughout Scotland, with the exception of the islands where timber was scarce. Sunnybrae is characteristic of these cottages, in that it is a low, single-storey, three-bay dwelling. Surviving cottages with intact cruck frames are rare.

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.

Listing category changed from B to A in 1998. Previously a Scheduled Monument. The scheduling was removed in 2013.

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

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Sunnybrae Cottage, 156 Atholl Road, Pitlochry at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17572341

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

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  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
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  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
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  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
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  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)