About Cuthill House
History
The origins of Cuthill go back 1,000 years to Viking times, like much of the Dornoch Firth area. It is pronounced Ketil to this day, after a 10th Century warrior of that name, who settled in the area at the same time as Sigurd, Earl of Orkney, whose burial mound is on the next door farm. It is mentioned in a 13th Century document recording a major land dispute between the Earls of Sutherland and the Abbot of Dornoch. The Abbot kept Skibo, but had to relinquish Cuthill and other farms along the Evelix River valley. The Sutherlands then kept the land until the late 19th century, when they finally sold it along with Skibo itself, to Andrew Carnegie, the American Steel magnate
Cuthill House was built by the Duke of Sutherland in around 1820, as part of his upgrading of the more fertile and commercially viable tenant farms. It was a classic "4-up, 4-down" 18th century design used throughout the Highlands. Shortly after this the River Evelix was partly canalised across Cuthill Farm to improve the land and the dam wall that creates Loch Evelix was built.
The lane in front of the Farm is the old road from Dornoch to Meikle Ferry, the only crossing point on the Dornoch Firth, and for centuries was the main route south and to the important Market at Tain. There was a spur road leading out to the point from which summer fishing boats were launched and this is still a deep water access point, just beside the current A9 bridge.
Surrounding Area
The farm is rich in wildlife, including Roe deer, duck, geese, Wild swans, pheasants, woodcock & snipe. Cuthill Sands in front of the farm is home to 10s of thousands of wildfowl over the winter and the farm has both a productive flight pond and good goose flighting on the arable fields. There is a large rabbit warren on the links, which is an SSSI for being a rare area of sand dunes covered in heather and lichen. The River Evelix is an established salmon river and the ladder at the mouth of Loch Evelix (on Skibo) has recently been repaired, significantly easing the run of fish. The current owner has improved the 5 or 6 pools on the ½ mile of river, but has hardly fished at all, with 1 fish caught in 2007. However, the beat above Cuthill caught 10 fish in 2007 and reported that in August & September fish ran on most tides, when there was sufficient water.
Cuthill is surrounded by famous Links golf courses. The private course at Skibo is just across the road. Royal Dornoch (the 3rd oldest in the world) is 3 miles away, while Tain, Golspie and Brora are all within a short drive. Directly across the Firth opposite the farm is the famous GlenMorangie Distillery.
