Building record MAB39920 - CROFTFODDIE

Croft or small farmstead, depicted on the 1st and 2nd edition OS maps.

Croft or small farmstead, depicted on the 1st and 2nd edition OS maps. The main house is still in residential use, but the farm buildings are no longer used and in varying states of disrepair. The remains of a mill, labelled as a saw mill on the 1st edition OS map, survive to the west of the main cluster of buildings, its mill dam and sluices formerly lay to the north. A standing building survey of the four steading buildings was carried out by Murray Archaeological Services in January 2021 ahead of proposed conversion. Building 1 was formerly a byre and possibly stable, with loft above. It is rectangular, of rubble stone construction with granite quoins, and a slate rood with ceramic ridge. The initials JF have been cut into a stone on the west gable. Internally the building has been divided by a concrete block wall and the east end concrete floored, but some 19th century features remained at the west end including a cobbled floor. On the inside of the north wall are low stone walls that are on the footprint of walls shown on the 2nd edition OS map. Building 2 was of rubble stone with a slate roof (partially collapsed) and with no evidence of a chimney although the east gable is broken. It may formerly have been a carpenter's workshop though there was no evidence of surviving internal fittings. Three livestock pens built with concrete blacks across the east end may have been used for pigs. Building 3 was a former watermill or sawmill, now roofless, constructed of rubble stone with granite quoins, the stones larger and more squared alongside the mill wheel pit. Iron fittings on the stonework remained from the fixings of the outer end of the wheel axle. There was no sign of a lade. Internally all that remained were axle fittings and joist holes of the loft floor. Building 4 was a pole barn with corrugated tin roof and cladding, the north side of the building cut into the slope and revetted with stone. It may incorporate stonework from the earlier building on this footprint. Another pole barn south of Building 1 had been removed prior to the survey. The OS Name Book (circa 1864) describes the buildings as single storey and thatched, but does not give any indication that this was a saw mill at that time, although a saw pit is marked some distance from the mill. From at least 1844 until 1908 the croft was tenanted by the Forbes family and there are indications from documentary sources that they developed the sawmill and joiner's workshop.

MURRAY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SERVICES, 2021, CROFT FODDIE, STRACHAN, ABERDEENSHIRE: STANDING BUILDING SURVEY, L1 SBS (Bibliographic reference). SAB7534.

ARCHAEOLOGY SCOTLAND, 2022, DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION IN SCOTLAND, NEW SERIES, VOLUME 22 (2021), p.21 (Bibliographic reference). SAB8314.

Record last edited

Jul 26 2023 11:05AM