History of Craigard House

History of Craigard House

The house was first built in the 1840's and occupied by the Rhodes family at about that time, theyt had worked initially as carpenters on the Caledonian canal with Thomas Telford. James Rhodes, was appointed Canal Superintendent at Invergarry. The family were originally from the Bradford area. A substantial amount of land was associated with the house as the family were also involved in farming. Not much evidence remains of the farm, the building to the side of the house is the old cowshed, there are also some buildings in the area, such as an old gamekeepers cottage.

In the 1860's the family sold the house and it was incorporated into the Glengarry estate by the Ellice family. At this stage it ceased to be a farmhouse and became the factors house and office. At about this time the only major alteration to the building took place, the rear part of the building was extended upwards to create an extra room above what was the Factors offices. The proch was also added at about this time. The Factor, George Malcolm, lived here for over 30yrs, he was viewed with a great deal of respect within the community. Although the office part of the house is now the private accommodation the office nature of the rooms is still very much in evidence.

The house stayed within the estate until the 1940's when it was sold to the government department developing the hydro schemes in the glen and surrounding area. It then became the engineers offices. It became a guest house in the late 1960's.

An insight into changes in the technology came to light this year when part of the roof guttering was replaced, a section from 1840 and another from the 1870's addition. The galvanised nails from 1840 were all clearly handmade, each different and square in section, by 1860 they were all machine made. However both sets of nails were retained as they were in almost perfect condition and used in the replacement lead work. So they are there probably for another 160 years!