The Township

An outstanding feature of the Highland Folk Museum is its recreation of part of the Highland ‘township’ of Easter Raitts for which the original site is located well up the Spey Valley side to the north of Lynchat, near Kingussie.

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Looking towards the Township's Weaver's House prior to its rebuild during 2007	A view of the Township	Looking towards the Pigmans House2007.

The inhabitants of Easter Raitts were essentially living as a community of rural tenants in a settlement of timber ‘cruck’ frame buildings with principally earthen walls built onto low stone foundations and thatched roofs. Although, there are prehistoric remains at the site, the principal Township settlement dates from the later medieval period through to the early 1800s. By the latter date, the planned town of Kingussie, founded circa 1795, was well developed and the work and opportunities it created undoubtedly contributed to the economic ‘Clearance’ of the township.

Survey plan of the Easter Raitts settlement indicating the stone foundation remains.

Between 1995 and 2000 the original township was archaeologically surveyed and investigated. The information obtained was added to that gleaned from historical documents and material evidence that had survived from other vernacular structures. Together it was used to inform what was to become, starting in 1995, a major archaeological experiment, namely re-creating a part of the Easter Raitts township at the Highland Folk Museum.

Constructing the original ‘Pigman’s House’ during the 1990s.	Early construction work at the Township.

Initially, the principal part of the work at the Museum was carried out by the, no longer in existence, Highland Vernacular Buildings Trust or HVBT. Here, apprentices were taken on to not only learn about traditional crafts especially those relating to vernacular buildings and their construction but also to put them into practice. One of the principal outcomes was the construction of the Township. It was a steep learning curve as sometimes by trial and error new skills were brought into play, but critically, important historical and practical information was learned. For example, real practical knowledge relating to different Scottish thatching traditions using such as heather, broom, rushes, bracken and latterly local reeds cut from nearby marshes next to the River Spey.

Today, the Museum’s township comprises several recreated buildings from the ‘Creel House’ (Survey plan #11), the largest building interpreted as possibly being that once owned by the ‘tacksman’ or principal tenant; to the more lowly ‘Pigman’s House’ (Survey plan #24) with its stone walled run that was more likely associated with goat keeping. None of these buildings are exactly as they started out in the 1990s. Being organic in nature they require constant, labour intensive, maintenance, repair and eventually replacement. This too also relates to the overall learning process and as the buildings are either repaired or re-placed the years of knowledge added by the Museum’s staff is incorporated too.

During 2006 the so called ‘Pigman’s House’ was substantially rebuilt and re-thatched with heather and in 2007, there was a similar rebuild of the ‘Weaver’s House’ (Survey plan #7) but thatched with reed cut from the River Spey marshes. Now, in 2008, the principal project is the total rebuild of what was called the ‘Feall House’ (Survey plan #10) with its turf walls. This latter building, along with its adjacent barn (Survey plan #9) was the first to be constructed in 1996 and in essence it has lasted twelve years. The new build will be similar to the first build. However, the heather thatch will be applied to a roof with a much steeper pitch and the lower constructed walls will in part be timber lined. This last feature is in part informed by the discovery of a photograph taken by the Museum’s founder, Dr Isabel Grant, circa the 1920s of the remains of an Inverness-shire cruck framed building.

	Re- BUILDING HOUSE #10, 2008
The Inverness-shire timber, cruck framed structure recorded by the Museum’s founder Dr Isabel F. Grant c.1920s. and used to inform the building of House #10 during 2008.	The wall foundation of the original House #10, the ‘Feall House’, exposed May 2008 and ready for re-use. The House in the background is #7, the ‘Weaver’s House’ rebuilt during 2007.
The first House #10 cruck frame laid out awaiting assembly and erection.	The first two frames of House #10 erected, May 2008.
The cruck frame of #10 under construction with several of the horizontal roof purlins in place , June 4th 2008.	Thatching the ‘Weaver’s House’ with River Spey marshes reed, 2007.

More construction pictures will be added as the project progresses.

All the above work at the Museum is primarily undertaken by the Museum’s two, ex-HVBT craft workers. These men, both of whom are not only qualified thatchers, but are also multi skilled in working with wood and stone. On occasion too, the team is also aided by the Museum’s technician, again an ex-HVBT craft worker.

The overall result created at the Museum is not just unique but spectacular. The Township has been used not only as a television backdrop but as a feature in various television historical documentaries including in 2008 the STV documentary ‘Highlands’. It has also been and continues to be used for interpretive programs and has been a regular ‘home’ to re-enactors. Of the latter, it has been the Museum’s pleasure to annually welcome one group, MacFarlanes’ Company (www.macfarlanescompany.org) who make the journey to Scotland from Michigan in the USA.

MacFarlanes’ Company at the Highland Folk Museum, April 2008

We hope that you will come to the Museum and enjoy spending time at the Township. We further hope that you will not only marvel at the buildings, how they were made and what they might have been like to live in, but also that you will enjoy the opportunity to talk with our staff and find out more about 1700s Highland township life.

Museum staff at the Township