Hill o Fare - Shooting Lodge

[Gordon Ballantyne]

Whilst walking the length of the Hill of Fare, I spotted an unusually shaped 2-storey house below the subsidiary top of Craigrath, which I noted for further investigation. It's marked on the map as a Shooting Lodge.
Picked up Mike and his Poodiel wally dug, then headed of to Raemoir hotel and parked up.

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It was a wee bit claggy and trying to rain, but by the time we reached the place on the track which neared the top of Craigrath, we could see the Corfedly bothy and realised we'd missed the track to the hoosie. We back-tracked to find the turnoff which we'd missed earlier. The grass heads along this track were heavy with the recent rain, which then efficiently deposited it on our trousers and dribbled down into our shoes. ( Nae spats ).
As we emerged from the wee copse o trees straddling the path, the Hoosie came into view in all its glory.

Hoose 1

We walked up to the house to inspect it. As is usual in this area, it was constructed of faced granite with a slate roof, but this one was 2 storeys high - the first one I've seen like this. A single gable chimney ventilated fires on both floors. The lower floor had stone flags and a curious wash basin set into the wall. The upper floor was starting to collapse at the stairwell, The NW corner of the building had a serious crack, where the blocks were slightly displaced as the mortar was loose. I find it sad that these buildings are allowed to fall into disrepair after all the effor it must have taken to construct them back in Victorian/Edwardian times !

Hoose 2

Hoose 3

A wee copse of ancient conifer trees had been grown on the NE side to give some protection from the winter weather.

Hoose 4

We retreated from an onslaught of midges back down the track to the safety of the car.
Wee Toby the wally dug seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself in spite of having followed Mike on a 10k run in the morning !