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Chapelton, Deshar and nearby farms.
If you leave Boat of Garten on the road towards Aviemore, the road goes arrow-straight, for about a mile and a half due West across farmland, moorland and/ or forest until it reaches the A95 at Deshar. You will know you have arrived at Deshar, as Deshar School sits on the junction with the main road . There are no other buildings in the immediate vicinity so the school is not hard to spot. The school is actually on a crossroads but the road continuing across is only a small lane. SEE MAP
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Going up this lane takes you to Chapelton, to the right hand side is the old Chapelton Farmhouse, opposite this on the left the old farm buildings have been converted into very nice looking holiday cottages. The house where my Mum's generation of Camerons were born and raised is no longer there, having been demolished about 20 years ago. Its replacement whilst looking like a very nice modern house, is doubtless warm , comfortable, does not have a tin roof, is not built out of wood and asbestos and no doubt is all the things that the old house could never be ( such as warm) but it is just not Nanny's House !!
Next to this new house, is what is now called "Chapelton Cottage" this is another holiday let but the building is what we knew as The Bothy. This was built right next to the main house and is exactly the same type of building which gives some idea of what Nanny's House looked like. When built this was where the family would de-camp to when the main house was let to summer visitors. By the time I was around, this had long stopped happening, Nanny lived in Nanny's House all of the time and Auntie Meg lived next door in The Bothy. Needless to say Auntie Meg was not anyones Auntie but lets not complicate things !
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Continuing along the road past Chapelton, there are a few more houses on the side of the hill with spectacular views of the Cairngorms. The road goes up the hill for about a mile, past the place where generations of children dammed the stream and on ups the hill to Docharn.
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As local farms go Docharn is in a league of its own, the house is huge with a stunning location and outlook and around three times as much land as any of the other nearby farms.
From Deshar School if you take a right turn along the A95 you will pass 5 small turnings to the left, each being the access to one of the string of 5 farms along the base of the hill. From the Deshar end these are:-
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Chapelton
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Glebe of Deshar
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Balnacruie
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Dochlaggie
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Drumuillie
These will all crop up at various times in
the Cameron saga. The picture to the right is taken from the Aviemore road just before Deshar School, showing the old farmhouse of Chapelton at the left then along the base of the hill to The Glebe of Deshar. Click on the image to enlarge it.
