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Glen Loth, east Sutherland Winter sunrise, Glen Loth |
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Glen Loth, east Sutherland Winter sunrise, Glen Loth |
GLEN LOTH IS A
LONELY LITTLE GLEN
a mile or two south of the
scattered township of Loth itself. The glen
cuts due north through the hills of east Sutherland from the main A9
Brora/Helmsdale road to the Strath of Kildonan.
A narrow, little-used single-track road runs through the glen and
descends into the Kildonan valley above Duible;
it meets the Kildonan road a mile south of Suisgill. Glen Loth is one
of those places which shows signs of habitation
over a very long period - on a scarp above the main road at the
entrance to the glen there is a tumbled broch; a few
hundred metres further into the glen another better-preserved broch -
Carn Bran - lies across the waters of the Glen
Loth burn, and at two places elsewhere there are standing stones. On
the slope above the little road soon after it
leaves the A9 there are many ruins; not much is above knee-height but
a lot of people lived here, once. Further up,
into the glen proper there are further ruins across the stream; on
the opposite side of the valley there is a substantial
sheep-fank, the best-preserved ruin in the glen and probably still in
use after the 2nd world war.
IN THE FLAT, WET
BOTTOM-LAND OF THE GLEN there are no real ruins to be seen; no-one
would have choosen to
live down there (the nameLoth means
marshy); a single shepherd's cottage has only recently lost its roof
and is probably
still being worked on by someone. At the north end of the glen,
before it descends towards the Strath of Kildonan
there is another low stone ruin beside the road; a little further on
flattened,grassed-over walls show where someone
lived, some time in the past. No-one lives here today.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Ruins
in Glen Loth
GLEN LOTH WAS
CLEARED at the same time as nearby Kildonan, in three waves in
1809. 1813 and 1819. Across the county
to the west, Strathnaver was burning. The recent biography of Patrick
Sellar, who ruthlessly cleared these glens and town
-ships, has a lot to say about the clearance of Glen Loth - some of
that we will incorporate here, when possible.