Remains of Highland township that vanished from the map found in woodland

The remains of a township which disappeared from the map after it was cleared of its tenants have been found in a Highland woodland.

Achblair near Cannich was abandoned after new owner Lord Tweedmouth bought the Guisachan Estate in the 1850s to turn into a single farm and sporting estate, with the Liberal MP for Berwick Upon Tweed later moving tenants to his new model village of Tomich.

Now, the remains of Achblair have been discovered in publicly-owned forestry by a member of the Strathglass Heritage Society, along with a whisky still and lime kiln, with members now clearing part of the site in order to create a heritage attraction and walking trail.

Jim McAuley, chairman of Strathglass Heritage Association, said: “We would like to get to the situation where we get three to four houses uncovered and some sort of interpretation panel in place.

The remains of the township of Achblair. Woodland is now being cleared in a bid to preserve the heritage site. PIC: Strathglass Heritage Society.

“With all the forestry and agricultural changes, we have lost a lot of the old heritage.

“We don’t think we will be in a position that we will totally protect it but we would like to preserve some of it so that people out an about can see something and get them interested in their heritage and the past.

“The thing is as time goes on unfortunately, we have got fairly healthy membership but we don’t have a very young membership and we have a lot of people in the Highlands now who don’t necessarily have an interest. Some have zero knowledge about what went on here.”

Achblair was part of the old Guisachan Estate and sold in 1854 to Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, whose father was a partner in Coutts Bank, by the Frasers of Culbokie, who owned it since the 16th Century.

He set about building Guisachan House, where he first bred the Golden Retriever and remains a pilgrimage for dog fans, which is now in a state of decay. By the 1860s, he started clearing the townships and planning for Tomich with the Napier Commission later hearing he wanted Guisachan “simply for the game”.

Mr McAuley said: “The people from Achblair and another couple of townships on higher ground were told they were moving and the Guisachan estate became one big enclosed farm complex. There were noises made.

“When the people moved, instead of farming or having livestock in their own right, they were working for Tweedmouth. Anyone who worked for Tweedmouth was assured their houses and tenancies were ok.

“Tomich would have been entirely alien to them, it was a street of semi-detached houses, but there is no doubt that the work that Tweedmouth did would have been appreciated in some quarters. The houses that he built are still standing today.”

Estate maps from 1850 show houses at Achblair, with the census the following year recording nine households in the township.

Twenty years later and an entry in the 1871 Census states “there are no houses or inhabitants” there.

Ordnance Survey maps drawn in 1872 and 1876 - the first since the arrival of the new laird – shows a handful of buildings but doesn’t mention Achblair by name. By 1880, estate maps made no reference to it.

A guided walk to sites in Lower Guisachan forest will take place on October 1 for Highland Archaeology Festival. For more information visit www.strathglass-heritage.co.uk