I went for a walk and took some pictures. Loch Lee is now a reservoir flanked by a hunting lodge, but in the past it was the site of a small town under the control of Clan Lindsay. The first thing you pass upon entering the glen is Invermark Castle, (other side), a fairly-intact 16th century build that was abandoned some time in the 18th century. Parts of it were scavenged to build a nearby church to replace the older church in the early 1800s. A little further along, the loch itself comes into view and you pass by the ruins of that older church. It was itself a replacement for an even older 8th-century church which was destroyed in the Cromwellian period, during which Anglican Christianity very forcefully displaced many of the remaining Catholic areas of Britain. A little further along is this odd little one, which looks a lot more recent but is clearly abandoned. I assume it belongs to the hunting lodge, but I haven’t found anything about this. I just took a look inside the (already open) door and it seemed like nobody had used it in decades at least. This tiny boathouse might technically not be a ruin - there was actually a little rowing boat and accompanying oars hidden in there! Actually getting to it without getting into the water seems rather difficult, though. And beyond the loch, up the Water of Lee that feeds it, we find the last of the big structures still visible. There’s little left here save for the outlines of the walls, but the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland describes it as “two unroofed buildings and one large enclosure, which may be a sheepfold”. Archaeologists have identified many other similar buildings all throughout the glen, plus a cluster around the castle, but few of them are noticeable to an amateur casually passing by like these. The lives of the common people disappear so much more easily.

    • Skua@kbin.earthOP
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      3 months ago

      Thanks! It was a lovely day out. I do kind of wish I’d checked about the archaeology before instead of after so I could see if I could spot the less obvious stuff, but I had only planned to go there for the scenery and just bumped into other cool stuff along the way