The Weekly, every Sunday: one place worth going and one thing worth reading.
Interesting news · Monday 3 August
Fewer than 240 buildings in Scotland still have an Angus flagstone roof
Angus · from historicenvironment.scot
Photograph · historicenvironment.scot
Historic Environment Scotland published an audit on 23 July which found only around 240 buildings in the whole of Scotland still have Angus flagstone roofing. Fewer than 200 of those are in Angus itself.
The stone was quarried right across the county and splits naturally into flat, durable slabs, which made it good for roofing, paving and walling, and for a long stretch it was more or less the default round there. Then the quarries stopped.
Roofs came off and the material got shifted onto other properties. One survivor is Davidson Cottage, built in the 1720s and restored between 2008 and 2012, which pulls a steady trickle of Harley-Davidson enthusiasts on account of the family connection. The bigger worry in the report is the specialist skills needed to keep the roofs on.
A riverside walk from Edzell through a little blue door in an estate wall by Gannochy Bridge, then up the gorge of the North Esk to the Rocks of Solitude.
Out now
Hidden Scotland, in print
Angus, at length.
The magazine is a hundred and sixty pages, twice a year. Have it posted, or join and read every issue on any screen.
