Achblair

Achblair Township

Ordnance Survey Map 1876 post clearance
Cleared structure Achblair

In 1854, William Fraser sold Guisachan Estate to Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks (later to become Lord Tweedmouth).  While the Frasers had viewed the estate as a source of income, Tweedmouth approached it as a something that money was to be lavished upon.

The estate lands occupied by tenant farmers and crofters were replaced by a single new estate-run “model farm” centred on a magnificent steading complete with clock tower.  This signalled the end for the small townships such as Achblair, where tenants whose families had worked the land for generations on small farms, were removed.

Extract from 'The Policies of Guisachan' Kilmorack Heritage Association 2007

The image above gives details of those living at Achblair at the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses.  The tenants were either accommodated in the new model village of Tomich and became employees of the estate, or were simply evicted and moved elsewhere.

Achblair 1856
Achblair 1880

The estate maps above, drawn just under twenty five years apart, show the landscape changes resulting from ‘improvements’ on the Guisachan estate.  In 1856 there are more than twenty buildings and an enclosure at Achblair.  By 1880 they are gone – from the map perhaps, but the remains of several structures still exist today.   Unfortunately we don’t have access to maps prior to the 1790s but we can be sure that Achblair was inhabited long before then.

In 2020 Achblair was ‘discovered’ within the Lower Guisachan Forest by one of SHA’s members.   The site remained untouched till 2023 when, in preparation for the creation of our heritage trail, work began to clear the moss and vegetation from some of the old houses.  One structure has been totally, and two others partially, cleared to reveal the stone foundations.  We also know the locations of several more structures and the track shown on the 1876 map above.  The houses originally would have had timber frames attached to form the roof, covered with turf and then thatched with dried grass.  For more detaild information on how the houses were built visit Electric Scotland.

SHA hope to locate and clear all the remaining buildings including  removal of trees growing within or that have fallen across some of the structures. 

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Shadow

Clearing a ruin at Achblair 2023

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