A rare opportunity to snap up a piece of Scottish history is up for grabs with the sale of one of the oldest buildings in Scotland.
The Smiddy at Contin, which has links to Bonnie Prince Charlie, is now on the market with an asking price of £99,000.
And the Ross-shire village is where the Young Chevalier raised most of his tartan army for his 1745 rebellion that ended in catastrophic defeat on Culloden battlefield the following year.
The National Record of the Historic Environment states that there was a dwelling on the site dating back to 1534.
And the building, on the main Inverness to Ullapool road through the village, was a fully working blacksmith’s until 2004 when the last blacksmith, former JP and World War II veteran Roderick Macleod Munro retired.
Since then, his family has preserved the smiddy with its magical collection of old time blacksmiths’ artifacts and tools.
Legend says that Prince Charles Edward Stewart visited the smiddy to have his horses shoed and to raise support for the Jacobite Rebellion in March 1746, which came to a bloody conclusion on April 16.
The South West corner of the building boasts a large foundation stone, known as the King Stone, where Prince Charlie stood to rally extra clansmen to what was to be a lost cause.
The smiddy, which consists of one bedroom, one bathroom, a shop and a reception room, is double glazed and centrally heated.
It is built of traditional stone walls with a Ballachulish slate roof, has services on site, ample parking and good views of Tor Achilty and the Strathconon hills.
Estate agents Rightmove say: “The Smiddy is ideally suited as a shop with accommodation and land behind to the River Blackwater.
“The building has a fantastic footfall for business and is located on the North Coast 500 tourist route around the scenic north Highlands.”
