The property at 14 Main Street known as ‘Fossil House’ (because of the

fossilised tree trunks in front of it) was leased in 1879 by John Whyte Melville

to Mr. Robert Mitchell, quarry master. The cottage behind it, 12 Main Street,

now called ‘Sithean Cottage’, was converted from the stable of ‘Fossil House’.

From fragments of newspaper found in a window frame it appears that the

conversion took place in 1950. In the grounds of the cottage there is a well

whith had an electric pump which was used after 1936 when electricity was

installed until water was piped into the village and which provided both

‘Sithean Cottage’ and ‘Fossil House’ with water.

The deeds of ‘Bonfield Cottage’ were originally given tor another site. In

1824 John Whyte Melville leased land to Andrew Lumsden ‘to build a house

and keep it in good order’. In 1851 Mr. Whyte Melville wished to extend the

working of his quarry up to the site of the house. With compensation worked

out by referees ‘for the draining, manuring and trenching’ of the land, a new

site ‘lying immediately to the Eastward and equal to the ground relinquished’

was given to Mr. Lumsden in place of the original land.

Three cottages on Church Road, numbers 5, 7 and 9 were all part of the

schoolmaster’s glebe. They were originally two-roomed cottages with a

store-room in the middle. Until the late 1 960s the floors were made of earth

and covered with linoleum. They had two box-beds in the living-room and

one box bed in the best room. The ranges had a sway (a hook for hanging

pots) and a chain over the fire. And, as was common in the village, there was

a pigstye in each of the gardens.

Another property on Church Road which was part of the schoolmaster’s

glebe was number 11, ‘Barley Rig’. It was two cottages, one a but and a ben

with an apprentice’s loft over it leading to a large stable workshop which was

the other part of the property. It had first been feued to a wheelwright who

had set a broad ring into the floor. The converted house was built into the

shell of the two cottages.

The house on the east corner of Main Street and the High Road opposite

‘The Tavern’ now called ‘Brig-a-Doon’, and at one time called ‘The Toll House’

was part of the schoolmaster’s glebe and was first feued in 1828. It is known

that a toll-bar was in operation there by 1816 and census records of 1861 and

1871 give the names of toll keepers, but there is no evidence that they lived in

that house or that it had ever been a toll house.

‘The Cottage’, 24 Church Road, is one of the few older properties in

Strathkinness for which all the title deeds and documents have survived and

are available for study. It is worth giving some of its history as it reveals

many aspects of past life in the village.

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