Lydsurach Crofthouse, Balblair Estate

Lydsurach Crofthouse is a remarkably unaltered single storey and attic crofthouse, probably dating to around the mid-19th century. It is remotely sited to the north of Bonar Bridge at a location approximately 300 metres above sea level, built in a small dip in the land to provide shelter with its entrance facing downhill to the southwest.

The building is constructed of local rubble stone, roughly shaped at the corners, with slaister pointing. It has a red corrugated iron roof with three rooflights to the principal elevation and a chimneystack on each gable. The principal elevation is a three-bay design with a central basic two-leaf boarded timber door. There is a small window opening to either side, fitted with timber sash and case windows with four-pane glazing. The rear elevation has one small central window opening, now unglazed.

The interior survives largely as it was when built with no electricity, running water, sanitaryware or other modern interventions. The last period of decoration appears to have been in the 1930s. A small flagstoned entrance lobby leads to a room on either side. The room to the left is the former parlour, with a timber floor and ceiling and some timber boarding surviving to the walls. It contains a plain timber fire surround and a cast iron horseshoe-shaped fireplace. To the right is the kitchen, which has a cast iron range from the Rose Street Foundry in Inverness set into a plain timber fire surround. To the left of this is a part-glazed cupboard. The walls and ceiling are covered in layers of wallpaper but are likely to be timber lined, with a floor probably of timber now covered with subsequent layers of other flooring materials. A timber stair set at right angles to the front door is accessed from the kitchen, providing access to two corresponding bedrooms above. Behind the stair is a timber boarded storeroom accessed from the kitchen, with a similar small room on the floor above. The timberwork varies from very broad planed floorboards to small trees which have been simply cut in half and used with their bark to provide areas of walling.

Lydsurach Crofthouse is shown on the 1874 Ordnance Survey map (as Ledsaurich). The Rose Street Foundry where the range in the crofthouse was made was set up in the 1830s, suggesting the crofthouse was built around 1850 to 1870 during a period of relative prosperity. A newspaper dated 1952 found in the crofthouse indicates it was inhabited until around that time, and was latterly used as an agricultural store and bothy. Some furniture and possessions belonging to the last inhabitant, possibly Charles MacKinnon, survive in the building.

The crofthouse appears today largely as it was when built, with no apparent alterations or additions to its exterior or, apart from cosmetic redecoration, to its interior since its construction. Its immediate setting has changed, as the other buildings associated with the crofthouse now survive in various states of ruination or only as foundations in the landscape. The wider landscape has also changed from a much more populous one with many crofts to a more sparsely inhabited one.