Building record MAB15988 - SHEPHERD'S LODGE, BOGHEAD

Remains of a croft and enclosures, including kail yard, part of the Bennachie Colony, which had its origins in the 1830s, and was established on 'commonty' land shared between nine estates.

Remains of a croft and enclosures, including kail yard, part of the Bennachie Colony, which had its origins in the 1830s, and was established on 'commonty' land shared between nine estates. The OS 1st edition map shows a three-compartment range an attached garden enclosure and two small buildings set within small fields. On the 2nd edition map the buildings are shown as roofless and the fields under conifer trees. RCAHMS site visit in 1999 recorded the remains of the range which included a cottage measuring 9.8 m by 5.5 m over stone walls 0.6 m thick and up to 0.7 m high, with an entrance in the centre of the southeast side. The rest of the range, extending to the northeast, is 13.7 m long containing three compartments, each with an entrance on the southeast. Immediately southeast and revetted by a low wall, is a narrow terrace on which there is a small rectangular structure measuring 2.3 m by 2 m, the walls 0.5 m thick and 0.3 m high. The remains have been investigated as part of the Bennachie Landscapes community research project. Following survey in 2009-10 shovel test pitting was carried out in 2011 in the large enclosure east of the building remains known as Shepherd's Lodge. The test pitting recovered ceramics, predominantly undecorated and decorated white wares, and kaolin pipe fragments. Further excavation was carried out at Shepherd's Lodge in July 2013. The discovery of a discrete burning layer tallies with folk history about the eviction of the LIttlejohn family and subsequent burning of the crofts by Bailiffs for a local estate. The Bailies of Bennachie restored 18.2 m of the 33. 8 m north dyke of the 19th-century kailyard in October 2025. The dyke was in varying states of disrepair with a surviving fragment showing that the dyke had been up to 0.9 m high. The 2nd edition OS map shows that part of the dyke had been removed in the second half of the 19th-century. The restoration works uncovered a length of stonework that may have been intended as a kerb on the downslope side of the trackway leading west towards the old quarry.

OLIVER, J, 2013, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE 'COLONY' IN SHEPHERD, C. (ED) BENNACHIE AND THE GARIOCH. BENNACHIE LANDSCAPES SERIES: 2 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1394.

OLIVER, J, 2015, ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BENNACHIE COLONY: EXCAVATIONS OF TWO 19TH CENTURY CROFTS (Bibliographic reference). SAB1399.

TAYLOR, S, 2015, POTTERY FINDS FROM THE COLONY SITE: SOME INITIAL OBSERVATIONS, IN SHEPHERD, C. (ED) BENNACHIE AND THE GARIOCH, 3, 99-110. (Bibliographic reference). SAB3412.

OLIVER, J, 2016, THE BENNACHIE COLONY: A 19TH-CENTURY INFORMAL COMMUNITY IN NE SCOTLAND. IN INT. JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, VOL 20 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1395.

FOSTER, B, 2019, SHEPHERD'S LODGE KAILYWARD: PRE-PLANTING EXCAVATION, IN SHEPHERD, C. (ED) BENNACHIE AND THE GARIOCH, 4, 47-52 (Bibliographic reference). SAB4190.

FOSTER, B, 2019, SHEPHERD'S LODGE KAILYWARD: PRE-PLANTING EXCAVATION, IN SHEPHERD, C. (ED) BENNACHIE AND THE GARIOCH, 4, 47-52 (Bibliographic reference). SAB4190.

FOSTER, C, 2019, THE BENNACHIE COLONY: RECREATING A 19TH CENTURY 'KAILYARD'. IN SHEPHERD, C. (ED) BENNACHIE AND THE GARIOCH, 4,53-64 (Bibliographic reference). SAB4191.

BAILIES OF BENNACHIE, 2023, THE COLONY TRAIL, Leaflet (Bibliographic reference). SAB3833.

Aug 2 2025 , BLP-GR-25-08-019 - 020, BLP-GR-25-08-019 - 020 (Ground Photograph). SAB37282.

Oct 19 2025 , BLP-GR-25-10-022 - 023, BLP-GR-25-10-022 - 023 (Ground Photograph). SAB37283.

Sep 18 2025 , BLP-GR-25-09-005, BLP-GR-25-09-005 (Ground Photograph). SAB37281.

Record last edited

Nov 6 2025 9:59AM