Camserney

By James Irvine Robertson

The village is a later creation than Dull. It grew by the burn which once powered seven mills. The mills are now houses, but at the farm just west of the turn off to the village is the only surviving cruck house in Strathtay which can be viewed through the offices of the information centre in Aberfeldy. This was the standard style of habitation in the clachans in which the prosperous tenants of the chiefs and lairds might live. The crucks were the heavy curving timbers which supported the roof.

The earliest fireplaces were in the centre of the floor, the hearth a few stones and the smoke left to find its own exit in its own time. The fire was then moved against a wall and a clay and withie chimney was hung from the roof which did a slightly better job of smoke clearance. Two examples of this construction can be seen at the restored cottage at Camserney, and one example of the chimney's final manifestation when it was built into a gable end. On this building heather thatch has replaced corrugated iron which was once red-rusting and ubiquitous throughout the Highlands.