Sight · Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park
Rare cruck-framed longhouse where family and cattle shared one roof
Overview
This is a beautifully conserved cruck-framed byre dwelling in Glen Lochay, a short drive up the glen from Killin. It gives an unusually direct insight into rural family life in 19th-century Scotland, in a building type that has almost entirely vanished elsewhere. Heritage records describe it as a single-storey, five-bay traditional cottage, probably late 18th to early 19th century, though sources differ on the exact date.
Parkwolf’s verdictWhy stop hereMap
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Loch Lomond & The Trossachs Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this place
Moirlanich Longhouse in Glen Lochay“You're approaching Moirlanich Longhouse in Glen Lochay, a rare preserved home where a Highland family and its cattle lived under one roof.”
Plays as you drive up to Moirlanich Longhouse in the Parkwolf Loch Lomond & The Trossachs Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
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Guide
The longhouse plan is the whole point. Living space for the family and space for the cattle ran together in a single long building, so warmth, work and daily routine were shared rather than separated. Walking the length of the interior, you can read that arrangement in the structure itself and understand why the byre end mattered as much as the fireside.
The Robertson family lived here from the 1850s until the 1960s, often with three generations under the roof at once, and the last inhabitant left in 1968. Gaelic-speaking tenant farmers had settled in this part of the glen from 1809. The property passed into National Trust for Scotland care in 1992, which is why the interiors survive with their surfaces and contents largely undisturbed.
The restricted opening days catch people out more than anything else, and arriving on a closed day means you see the exterior only. The interior is small, so most visits are short. If you want walking or a longer outing, plan that separately in the glen or around Killin. The appeal here is concentrated entirely in the preserved building and its rooms.
It is a modest, focused visit rather than a big day out, and it rewards anyone curious about how Highland tenant families actually lived.
Wildlife
14 sightingsGolden EagleMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
37 sightingsRed DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
100 sightingsMute SwanMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
48 sightingsOspreyMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
24 sightingsEurasian BeaverMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
37 sightingsEurasian Pine MartenMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Loch Lomond & The Trossachs. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ChallengingSròn a’ Chlachain3.2 km · 2 hr · 1.4 km awayShort climb, wide views over Killin and Loch Tay.
EasyAcharn Forest Circuit6 km · 2 hr · 2 km awayA gentle forest loop on an old railway track with hill views.
EasyAuchmore Circuit4.2 km · 1.5 hr · 2 km awayWoodland tracks lead to broad views over Loch Tay.Parkwolf’s Loch Lomond & The Trossachs ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
