Cottage has links with the Bahamas
An Aberfoyle cottage featured in an article in the Stirling Observer has sparked a special connection with the Bahamas.
Writer Fay Knowles’ ‘mini memoir’ “The Scottish Connection” caught the attention of the present owner of Craigenvoch Cottage in the village.
The house, situated near Loch Ard just outside Aberfoyle, is featured in the memoir under its original name Craigenveoch Lodge.
It is currently up for sale by McLean & Stewart, Dunblane, at offers over £270,000.
However, the current owner messaged Fay, who is a Daughter of the Rock having been born in Stirling but has lived in the Bahamas for many years, having seen the Observer article about Fay’s visit to Aberfoyle and her memoir.
She then gratefully accepted their offer of some older and more recent photos of the cottage.
“The Scottish Connection” tells the story of Fay’s 1978 journey back to Scotland along with her mother and two young sons to revisit their roots. Craigenveoch Lodge is the cottage where her mother, Josephine McMurtrie Johanson, spent her formative years along with her family before she and her siblings signed up for the RAF during World War II.
Fay said: “My grandfather, the late Robert Ross MacDonald, worked on the Craigenveoch estate.
“My grandmother was the late Marion John Crooks MacDonald (nee McMurtrie).
“The present owner of the three bedroom Craigenveoch Lodge (Cottage), wrote me about the history of his house.
“He said the original estate was owned by a colonel who used to give garden parties to the villagers. The front lawn of the main house was a bowling green.
“The estate was bought by an electrical engineering contractor called Hurry and then in the 70s was bought by a roofing firm Roy and Partners.
“The big house was divided into flats by Roy.
“The current owner explained that his cottage Craigenveoch was built sometime during 1880-1900 and had undergone considerable development since then.”
Fay was delighted to receive the old photos of the house, the name of which was changed from Craigenveoch Lodge to Craigenveoch Cottage by the present owner so it would not get mixed up with another property. She added: “In one of the photos, a family stands beside the cottage.
“Written on the photo sent to the present owner from the wife of a descendant of the family are the words: ‘The Buist Family – about 1910 – James Buist was a gardener and we believe that my husband’s mother (the oldest girl and oldest in the family) was born on 31st December 1899 – as far as we know in your [the present owner’s] house and certainly they lived in it. We hope you enjoy the pictures’.
“I can imagine that the Buist children must have also leaned out of their bedroom window to enjoy the view across Loch Ard and perhaps other children too over the years!
“What pleasure Craigenveoch Cottage has brought to successive families and indirectly to other people like me with connections in some way to this lovely home.”
Fay is the author of a number of short stories and poetry published in both the UK and the Bahamas.
Her works, including her romantic suspense novel “Lovel at Sunset”, set in Scotland and the Bahamas and which has now been released in large print, are available on Amazon as e-books and in paperback.