Fisherman's thatched cottage

Description Fisherman's thatched cottage

Date 7/1883

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number AG 1668

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 746287

Scope and Content Cuil Bay, Highland This fisherman's cottage, photographed by Erskine Beveridge c.1885 in a remote corner of north-west Appin, stands at Cuil Bay, a wide sweeping bay which encircles the north-east coastline of Loch Linnhe. The building, probably dating from the early 19th century, is constructed in a traditional architectural style found in many parts of the Highlands of Scotland. The cottage has thick stone walls, and a thatched roof with overhanging eaves which form a fringe around the wall-top. The roof is hip-ended, and is thatched with grass or heather, held in position with thick ropes which stretch across its surface. A short chimney barely emerges through the thatch at one end of the roof ridge. In the absence a pier, the fishing boats are drawn up on the shore when not in use, and the horizontal poles, stretched between tall uprights, are used for drying fishing nets. Fishing, always an important economy on the west coast of Scotland, was the mainstay of most of the small coastal communities in the late 19th century. The main catch was herring, but inshore fishing for whitefish and shellfish also played an important part. In 1886, there were also a large number of boats involved in lobster fishing. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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