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Maps dating back to 1772 show Gartymore as an existing farm with several small buildings surrounding the farming land.
The main farm buildings were situated down on the middle road, and the original tax collectors office is now used as a bothy.
Although I have not had a chance to compare these maps with modern equivalents in detail, it does look as though there were
buildings on the site where the thatched croft now stands.
Gartymore expanded as a crofting township in the early 19th century at the time of the clearances. People
allocated these small plots of ground were mostly cleared from the surrounding straths, and this is the period in which most
of the houses around Gartymore were built. Over the years, as the crofts have been passed on through families, many of the
houses have been left empty, and today there are over 50 ruined crofts, giving the landscape a somewhat haunting quality.
Houses in the 17th and 18th centuries were constructed mostly of stone to a height of about 3ft-then layers of turf or
"fail" to bring it up to 10ft. or so. The roof was made of thatched heather, or an alternative was branches of birch covered
with divots of turf and then thatched with a thin layer of straw held in place with ropes made from heather.
Before The Thatched Croft sank in to disrepair the roof was
constructed of turf divots overlaid with Marram grass (or bent) and patched with reeds cut in the fields. Pictures of the
house in its original state, with the roof intact, can be viewed on the Helmsdale community website.
The building was B listed by Historic Scotland due to the thatched
roof and the original interior. Sadly the then elderly owners were not able to maintain it, and the roof began to fail,
which resulted very quickly in the building becoming uninhabitable. Many of the local residents remember the house when it
was last lived in, and there are many interesting tales about the Cuthbert brothers who lived there.
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| The Thatched Croft as it was when we bought it 2004 |
We purchased the house as a ruin on the grounds of our property
in 2004, and began renovation work on it in August 2007. There is an ongoing blog detailing the work on the house, with lots
of pictures on my myspace page, but here are a few pictures just to summarize the transformation.
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| Inside the living room area |
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| One of the original windows |
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| Inside the house Sept 2007 |
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| Thatching the roof |
All of the work on the house has been done by my partner, including making the windows and doors and thatching the roof.
One of the most difficult things to do was to get permission to actually do the work, as finding original materials and then
meeting modern building standards within the framework of a listed building proved to be a bit of a minefield. Once there
were many thatched crofts around here, but there was no set method or materials that were used, it was very much a case of
'what was to hand at the time' as the houses were so very individual, finding definitive advice was a bit like hunting for
the needle in the haystack.
One person who was an absolute sanity saver, was Leo Wood, who as retired Master Thatcher gave us the benefit of his experience,
along with many amusing stories and great company. His website www.thatch.org is well worth a look through if you have any interest in thatch buildings.
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| It has a roof now! |
I will take this opportunity to give HUGE thanks to those people who have helped us out, in no particular order:
Stubbs for his ace work on the digger
Pauline for her help with the painting
Crispin for his help with his tractor
Leo for coming and showing us how to thatch
Izzy for coming and helping to put the roof on
Stevie and Di for helping with the concrete lending us machinery and keeping us cheery
Graham and Marion for the use of the MUCK TRUCK
Irene and Ger for babysitting, feeding us and providing moral support
Rebecca, Gary and the kids for testing it thoroughly
Jackie and Timespan for providing copies of old photos and local history
The Planning Department for their patience!
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