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Summary

Description

Early 19th century (before 1806) single storey cottage, enlarged, and joined in mid 19th century to W by further single storey and attic cottage, 1848-9. Game larder, late 19th century.

Principal cottage:

Rectangular-plan single storey, 3-bay cottage extended to E to make 4-bay cottage with T-plan addition to rear; linked before 1902 to cottage at W. Harled rubble, partial rubble base course.

Circa 1860, decorative gabled, open timber porch to door at centre of original cottage; panelled door with 2-pane fanlight; porch with 4-centred opening to front, 4 timber trunk-columns linked by cusp-headed timber railings; horseshoe emblem in boarded gablehead; swept eaves. Window in each remaining bay. Blank gable on return to left; return to right with 2 narrow, widely spaced windows. T-plan addition with 2-bay link block running N, 2 windows to E divided by staged chimneybreast and stack. Rear block with similar stack at centre to N elevation, flanked each side by 3 windows, centre of which slit window; windows on gabled return elevations. Link passage to later cottage, low single storey extending from recessed centre of W elevation.

4-pane glazing pattern in sash and case windows. Grey slates and clay ridge tiles. Ashlar coped, raised skews. Gablehead stacks.

W cottage:

Single storey with attic breaking eaves, 3-bay cottage with lean-to at rear and linked to original cottage. Harled stone.

S elevation with boarded door at centre, letterbox fanlight; small window above breaking eaves in square-headed stone dormer; outer bays each with window at ground and gaoled stone dormerheads to windows above, with beak skewputts. Blank return elevations. Window to centre at rear and later piend-roofed dormer above; lean-to addition flanking to left with door.

4-pane and plate glass glazing patterns in sash and case windows. Grey slates, clay ridge tiles. Raised ashlar coped skews. Gablehead stacks.

Game Larder:

To rear of principal cottage. Square-plan slatted, timber larder on concrete base. 2-leaf boarded doors flanked by slit windows to entrance elevation; 2 tall narrow louvred windows to each remaining elevation. Swept overhanging eaves to grey slate piended roof, lead coping. Louvred timber ventilator at apex with pyramidal roof and ball finial.

Statement of Special Interest

The gig house and stables serving the cottages is listed separately, as is the bothy. The cottage group is listed at category B in consideration of porch, larder and strong historic interest. The porch design was also used in a simpler form at Ivy Cottage, Easter Balmoral. Allt-na-Giubhsaich, originally known as 'The Hut', is shown on an 1806 plan of the Birkhall Estate. In 1849 the estate was purchased for the Prince of Wales, and The Hut was extended that year to enable Prince Albert and the Queen to stay there. Queen Victoria first visited The Hut on 26 September 1848. She described it as 'the little bothie, surrounded by a little fir wood where the Keeper lives'. She was told by 'Old Gordon' that the ruinous farm nearby had been called Alltnagiubhsaich, and he also said that Mr R Gorgon, the former tenant of Balmoral, had built The Hut and given it that name. It continued to be called The Hut until 1850. Ivor Brown explains that Queen Victoria chose to expand the original cottage because of the welcome solitude it offered. It was first extended in January 1851, when Dr Robertson sent a plan of a proposed wooden house at 'Alltgussach' for the ghillies, with a central door and window either side. See sketch adapted from William Wyld, 1852 (without porch), and watercolour by George M Greig of Prince Albert's dressing room, plate 105; illustrated in Delia Millar, plate 104. The foreground, sloping down to Loch Muick, was landscaped and planted, evidence of which remains. By 1885 'Loch Muick Lodge' (as it was then called) was described as a 'substantial building, with a good stone and slated Keeper's house, a 6-stalled stable and coach house, a gillie's hall, a wooden and slated larder, and a 1-roomed labourer's cottage, shingle roofed'.

Further game larders can be found at Balmoral Castle and Birkhall.

References

Bibliography

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