stirling-1963-vol-1/05_085

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE MIDDLE AGES AND LATER
windows larger than they were in the old houses". ¹ Of the older cottages which were in process
of replacement in the later 18th century, it is impossible now to find an unaltered example in
the more populous parts of the county, and even an altered on is difficult enough to identify
through the disguising efforts of improvement.
Some of these older cottages had walls of turf, set upon a foundation-course of rubble, and a
description of a building of this type, which stood until about 1920 at Torbrex, near St.
Ninians, is given under No. 259. Turf-walled houses were noted about 1860 on Redding Muir
and at Marchend, Polmont, ² but none appears to remain within the county today. Turf
houses of an unusual type, in which the dwelling space was scooped out of the solid moss,
existed in the Carse of Stirling until the end of the 18th century. A good idea of their appearance
is given by drawings made by Joseph Farington in 1792 ³ (Pls. 11 and 12); by this time the
draining of the moss had begun, and it is recorded that the "moss-houses" were replaced by
brick-built houses as the work proceeded. ⁴ The drawings bear out the remarks of a con-
temporary writer who, in describing this type of house, notes, "For the rudeness of the fabric
nature in some measure compensates, by overspreading the outside with a luxuriant coating
of heath and other moorish plants, which has a very picturesque appearance." ⁵
The house at Torbrex, already mentioned, had a cruck framework, and Farington's
sketches suggest that the moss houses were of similar construction. But in these latter the
crucks appear to have comprised two members, the upper member being scarfed to the lower
vertical member at the level of the wall-head. Stone-built as well as turf-built houses were often
constructed upon a cruck framework, however, and a number of examples built either in
dry-stone masonry or of rubble laid in clay mortar remain in the more remote parts of
Stirlingshire. At Hallquarter, near Denny (No. 362), and at Stronmacnair in Glen Dubh
(No. 377), there are examples of cruck-framed buildings of this sort, in which the crucks
are of two members, being scarfed at the wall-head in the manner just described. The date at
which any of these buildings was erected is not known, but there is nothing to suggest that
they are older than the 18th century; a cruck-framed "long house" at Leys, near Denny
(No. 360), in which the crucks appear to have been of the orthodox type, consisting of a single
member only, can be ascribed to the later part of the 17th century.
Finally, mention should be made of a number of small settlements, the remains of which
are preserved in the north-western or Highland area of the county. The most interesting
examples are Big Bruach-caoruinn and Little Bruach-caoruinn (Nos. 379 and 380), situated
in Glen Dubh on the south-eastern slopes of Ben Lomond. Although both these settlements
must have been abandoned a century or more ago, the houses, which were cruck-framed, are
fairly well preserved and are of the "long house" type - dwelling accommodation, byre and
other farm-buildings being combined under the same roof. They measure up to about 100 ft.
in length. The outlines of the associated areas of cultivated ground are still clearly discernible
at Big Bruach-caoruinn, and it is interesting to find that each community possessed its own
corn-drying kiln.

1 N.S.A., viii (Stirlingshire), 378 n.
2 Ordnance Survey Name Book, Polmont parish.
3 British Museum, Print Room, Farington Albums.
4 Robertson, G., General View of the Agriculture in the
County of Perth, 512 f.
5 Ibid.

-- D -- 49