Moirlanich Longhouse is a beautifully conserved cottage giving unique insight into rural family life in 19th-century Scotland. This cruck-framed byre dwelling nestled in Glen Lochay offers a unique opportunity to visit a traditional rural home, virtually unchanged since its last inhabitant left in 1968.
Inside, the family’s living quarters are separated from the cattle byre by a wooden partition. Unusually, it retains original features such as the hingin’ lum, box beds, Scotch dresser and layer upon layer of patterned wallpaper.
Step inside and and be transported back in time and see how four generations of the Robertson family of Glen Lochay lived. You’ll find no mod cons here! There’s no sink or running water in the house – all water was fetched from a spout at the roadside, which was fed by a spring up the hill – and the toilet can be found across the road outside.
The Robertsons were local horse breeders who, records show, also kept dairy cows for butter and cheese, a brood sow and a ‘fierce black bull’. At night, animals would sleep in the byre, which was separated from the longhouse’s dairy by a wooden partition.
The display hut, which was once the Robertson’s tool shed, has an exhibition of documents, photographs and information relating to the history and restoration of the house. Items of clothing discovered when the longhouse was bought by the Trust are also on display. See many original features, including the cruck frame, box beds and a hingin’ lum, as well as layers of early 20th-century wallpaper and an American gingerbread clock. The kitchen and best room have been restored to show how they would have looked.
As you stand before this historic dwelling within the stunning scenery of Glen Lochay, near Killin, the sense of remoteness and tranquillity is heightened. It’s this sense that demonstrates an important part of the story of how its inhabitants used to make their living from the land.
Built from local materials, mostly stone and timber, the longhouse endures as a virtually intact survivor of a building type once common around Loch Tay and its surrounding glens, despite the changing world around it.
Inside the kitchen, the heart of this home, you’ll find the ‘hingin’ lum’ (hanging chimney) – a very old form of fireplace that’s now rarely seen. Remarkably, the hood is made mostly of wood and paper. Soot deposits in the room behind the lum remind us how smoky the house would have been, and hints of peat and smoke still hang in the air!
It is practically unchanged since it was last lived in by the Robertson family from at least 1809 to 1968. A major change in the longhouse’s 200-year existence was the addition of corrugated iron over the thatch in the 1940s.
Although it may be hard to believe, the family and animals lived under one roof at Moirlanich – the family rooms at one end, the adjoining byre at the other. Wooden partitions, often part of the built-in furniture, divided up the space.
The Robertsons were local horse breeders who, records show, also kept dairy cows for butter and cheese, a brood sow and a ‘fierce black bull’.
Location: FMG7+WH Killin, United Kingdom
Only open Wednesday & Sunday it’s important to catch this ‘ museum’ open!
Entry prices
Adult £4.00
Concession £3.50
Family £12.00
One adult family £9.00
Young Scot £1.00
To book: GO HERE
