Here’s to Jim’s Jerah jaunts!

Fife resident Derek Finnie was moved to write after reading a recent Jim Crumley piece in The Courier concerning the old Jerah Farm, which lies a few miles northwest of Stirling in the Ochill Hills.

The Kirkcaldy resident says: “In my opinion Jim is the best nature writer in Scotland and he describes the place in his usual masterly fashion.

“One small quibble I have though, is his description of the ruined house at Jerah as a cottage.”

Derek continues: “Over the years I have been up and down past there quite a few times on various walks in the Ochils.

“I have always thought of the remains as that of a substantial two-storied farmhouse. Back in the mists of time, I’m sure that I once read in a library book – which book I’m blowed if I remember – that Jerah was the focal point of a sizeable upland farming unit.

“The owners, in addition to farming Jerah itself, rented out two other nearby farms – Wester Jerah and Park Farm.

“I have an even vaguer memory of this same book relating the eventual demise of the whole operation, but alas, I cannot remember the details.

“I believe Jim is around the same age as me, so maybe he will understand about the decline in human memory retention!”

He concludes: “Now that I have done that bit of nit-picking, I hope Jim gets back to Jerah for many more years.

“The tree plantings to the east of and above the old farm will transform the area in the future, but he should still be able to look out over the glen to Dumyat from his seat on the window-sill.”