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Summary

Description

A single-storey and attic, south-facing three-bay house, built 1920-1 as veteran's housing. It is constructed from rubble masonry with tooled dressings, coped end stacks and a slated roof. On the south elevation there is an off-centre door and two gabled weatherboarded dormers. To the north (rear) elevation there is a central gable with a first-floor window and a flanking coped wallhead stack. The rear elevation also has a lean-to porch which has been raised to two storeys as a bathroom extension with timber cladding to the upper floor. The steading is a simple low rectangular building to the rear of the house constructed in rubble stone with a corrugated asbestos roof.

The house and steading are located to the east of Tongue, south of Borgie Lodge Hotel, between the Borgie to Skerray road and the River Borgie. There are five other houses of similar date and style nearby, all of which are south-facing and line the east side of the Borgie to Skerray road.

Historical background

The house first appears on the Ordnance Survey One-inch 'Popular' edition map of 1930. The property was one of nine crofts that were built in 1920-1, of which six are located within this immediate area to the east of the main road.

Borgie Estate was owned by the dukes of Sutherland and centred on a 19^th century shooting lodge called Borgie House, now the Borgie Lodge Hotel. In 1914, it was included among 12,000 acres of sheep farming estate advertised for sale by the 5^th Duke of Sutherland after the death of his father. However, after failing to attract buyers, Borgie Estate was ultimately gifted to the Crown in 1916 for the settlement of soldiers and sailors who had volunteered for service in the First World War. The Duke of Sutherland reserved the fishing rights for the estate and the right to select the soldiers to become tenants.

Each family was given a small holding consisting of a house and steading and the offer of employment in new tree plantations on the estate. The houses contained four rooms plus kitchen, scullery, larder and washhouse, and were completed along with the steadings by July 1921 (North Star and Farmers' Chronicle).

The settlement of Borgie Estate was an early part of the British Government's afforestation policy after the First World War, which aimed to create a strategic domestic supply of timber. In 1919, Borgie was the first area in the Highlands handed over to the newly established Forestry Commission. Borgie Forest is located southwest of the small holdings across the river and by 1980 133,000 hectares of woodland had been planted there.

Statement of Special Interest

Architectural interest

The house is built in a modest vernacular style and is a good representative example of early-20^th century housing in a rural estate setting. It shows traditional construction methods and materials, and has a simple rectangular floor plan. The exterior retains a number of historic features, including the arrangement of the main elevation, chimneystacks, dormers, and simple, good quality stonework and detailing.

It forms part of a group of six surviving veterans' houses of matching date and style, but each with slight differences in design or detailing. They are all separately listed at Category C (see refs: LB18463; LB19882; LB18465; LB18466; and LB18467). The historic setting of the group remains largely intact, adding to the special architectural interest. The house and steading typology is still retained in several of the houses in the group.

Historic interest

The house is of historical interest as part of a relatively unusual and early example of high-quality housing provision for servicemen in a rural location after the First World War. Housing for veterans was constructed under several private initiatives in Scotland in the 1920s and 1930s, most notable by the Douglas Haig Memorial Homes, and there are listed examples in Callander (ref: LB22909), Edinburgh (ref: LB46726) Elgin (ref: LB30776) and Pitlochry (ref: LB47539). The houses at Borgie are notable among these other examples for being small holdings in a rural location with the inclusion of land and a steading as part of the property.

The connection of the house to the nearby plantations at Borgie Forest is also of social historical interest, providing evidence of the early work of the Forestry Commission in the north of Scotland and of efforts to resettle and employ First World War servicemen.

Listed building record revised in 2026.

References

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