A Hansel & Gretel cabin in the countryside … a small but perfectly-formed exploration.
A couple of years ago I came across what I thought was a sawmill cottage a few miles north of Dundee, on one of the network of farm tracks that heads up towards Forfar. It's a rustic timber cabin beside an old woodyard – there were some excitable dogs nearby and a woman screaming blue murder at a bairn – but otherwise it’s out of the way and very quiet. As it consists of only a couple of rooms, I thought it likely that it was used as a bothy, rather than a house. Given the relationship with the sawmills, it has well-crafted joinery – with yellow pine linings and finely-made timber shutters. It’s just a pity that a whole corner of the roof and wall is missing… presumably the result of a tree crashing down during last winter’s storms. Otherwise the interior is untouched and surprisingly dry.
At one time, there was a David Bryce-designed mansion house at the centre of the estate, but it was demolished in 1953 … and in doing a bit of digging in the map room of the archives, I discovered that the reedy rectangle beside the “cottage” had been a curling pond, or curlie, as they’re known in eastern Scotland. So, this bothy was at one time the curling clubhouse, and the smaller building beside it, presumably the store for curling irons and brushes. Many local curlies have succumbed to our milder winters – neither Claypotts at Broughty Ferry, nor Alyth Junction near Meigle, have been used for a bonspeil for many years. If there’s a really big freeze, then a Grand Match is called, and something like 15,000 curlers descend on a frozen loch. The last one was held about 20 years ago on the Lake of Menteith near Stirling.
A return trip to the clubhouse, with a better camera, gave me the chance to take more pictures, and some careful searching located a curling stone’s handle, caast in brass by Howden, Edinburgh, as well as the boxes which held pairs of curling stones. These sat in the low level shelves that run all the way around the perimeter of the clubhouse, with a bench seat on top. Having discovered the cabin’s true purpose, another question was sparked: the 1959 map showed another curling pond half a mile away at the House itself. Was curling really that popular in rural Angus? Was this larger pond used by the estate workers, whereas the other was for the gentry? Will this pond ever freeze over again??? If it does, I’ll be up to take some photos of the clubhouse “in its element”.
A couple of years ago I came across what I thought was a sawmill cottage a few miles north of Dundee, on one of the network of farm tracks that heads up towards Forfar. It's a rustic timber cabin beside an old woodyard – there were some excitable dogs nearby and a woman screaming blue murder at a bairn – but otherwise it’s out of the way and very quiet. As it consists of only a couple of rooms, I thought it likely that it was used as a bothy, rather than a house. Given the relationship with the sawmills, it has well-crafted joinery – with yellow pine linings and finely-made timber shutters. It’s just a pity that a whole corner of the roof and wall is missing… presumably the result of a tree crashing down during last winter’s storms. Otherwise the interior is untouched and surprisingly dry.
At one time, there was a David Bryce-designed mansion house at the centre of the estate, but it was demolished in 1953 … and in doing a bit of digging in the map room of the archives, I discovered that the reedy rectangle beside the “cottage” had been a curling pond, or curlie, as they’re known in eastern Scotland. So, this bothy was at one time the curling clubhouse, and the smaller building beside it, presumably the store for curling irons and brushes. Many local curlies have succumbed to our milder winters – neither Claypotts at Broughty Ferry, nor Alyth Junction near Meigle, have been used for a bonspeil for many years. If there’s a really big freeze, then a Grand Match is called, and something like 15,000 curlers descend on a frozen loch. The last one was held about 20 years ago on the Lake of Menteith near Stirling.
A return trip to the clubhouse, with a better camera, gave me the chance to take more pictures, and some careful searching located a curling stone’s handle, caast in brass by Howden, Edinburgh, as well as the boxes which held pairs of curling stones. These sat in the low level shelves that run all the way around the perimeter of the clubhouse, with a bench seat on top. Having discovered the cabin’s true purpose, another question was sparked: the 1959 map showed another curling pond half a mile away at the House itself. Was curling really that popular in rural Angus? Was this larger pond used by the estate workers, whereas the other was for the gentry? Will this pond ever freeze over again??? If it does, I’ll be up to take some photos of the clubhouse “in its element”.