Charles Fletcher > Quotes

“Earlier this year I visited the township of Bragar on the Isle of Lewis to research shielings. I was told the story of a local resident, Mr. Campbell, who lived through the end of transhumance on the island in the 1950s. Mr. Campbell readily recalled that the summers of his youth, spent at the family's àiridh on the Lewis moor, were the happiest time of his life; yet, when his family ceased to keep dairy cows on their croft, he refused to go out to the shieling any more: without the cows, what was the point? The essence of life at the shielings was gone.”
― Charles Fletcher, Reforesting Scotland 72: Autumn/Winter 2025

“The footprint of Culardoch Shieling measures 47 square metres and the interior is lined with Sitka. In contrast to traditional shieling huts, it provides accommodation for eating only. From within, the windows mimicking Ronchamp, are placed, not as Corbusier intended, to strategically introduce a deliberate interplay of light and shadow, but rather, to frame specific viewpoints of the Beinn Avon massif. Culardoch Shieling presents us with a clever, romanticised view of what the shieling can be in 21st century Scotland. Unfortunately, it is not a structure that I find convincing. The fusion of modernist borrowings and Swiss-chalet vernacular aside, it is the conceptual basis for this 'shieling' that I find troubling. Obviously the need for shieling huts to provide shelter for those tending the dairy herd is anachronistic. However, the heritage that Culardoch Shieling pays homage to is clearly straight from a 19th century shooting textbook. It's a lunch hut. A 21st century folly, which was never intended for overnight stay, nor for sustained periods of habitation. In Glen Gairn the shieling way of life has become shieling lifestyle.”
― Charles Fletcher, Reforesting Scotland 72: Autumn/Winter 2025