Auchtavan

Braemar day 3. We’d another walk with pals into Glen Feardar to visit the old settlement of Auchtavan. 

The settlement at Auchtavan is a rare example of a traditional Highland clachan or fermtoun which was restored and saved in 2008 by Braemar Community Limited. 

Small communities like these were home to countless generations in the centuries before the industrial revolution. Most of these settlements have disappeared, and their houses are now only a scatter of stones, but at Auchtavan the Hingin Lum Cottage and Horsemill still stand high on the mountainside above the River Dee. 

There is also a 20th C cottage on site that was a favourite picnic spot for the Queen Mother, which gives fantastic views over the Dee valley towards Lochnagar.