It is a parish with no villages never mind towns, but in the middle of the 19th century the population of the Cabrach was almost 800.
Now only around 70 people live in this wild and mountainous area of the north east, covered with barren moors and bogs and once famed for illicit stills. But major plans for a new distillery and heritage centre could be the key to its renaissance.
The Cabrach Trust is embarking on a £5.3million fundraising campaign to transform Inverharroch Farm into a visitor attraction with whisky at its heart.
The plans include the distilling, maturation and bottling of a unique whisky produced in a replica of an early 19th-century distillery using traditional methods. Bottles of it will be for sale.
The proposals for the heritage centre include a café, exhibition space for public and private hire and a gift shop.
It is all designed to create jobs and attract visitors to an area which lost its primary school six years ago, symbolising local despair over its future.
Several years ago residents issued a plea to Scottish Natural Heritage to include it on its map of wild land saying “The Cabrach is one of the most remote areas on mainland Scotland and has become a lost community.”
It is thought to take its name from the Gaelic word signifying timber moss, as it was once had wide tree cover. Now it is almost all part of a privately owned sporting estate.
The nearest villages are Rhynie in Aberdeenshire eight miles to the east and Dufftown in Moray eight miles to the north west. It was all in Aberdeenshire in the 19th century, which was not classified as one of the crofting counties. So its people did not win the security of tenure of their land, which the first crofting act in 1886 brought to crofters in the Highlands and Islands.
The Cabrach Trust is currently acquiring other nearby buildings to convert into accommodation and training facilities that would support the distillery and visitor centre. These include the school house and Old Cabrach Hall. Meanwhile the former primary school is currently home to the trust.
Grant Gordon, chairman of the board of trustees, said “Our vision is to help develop a thriving community that offers opportunities for both residents and visitors to enrich their lives by enjoying and sharing their surroundings. We believe that the distillery, heritage centre and the associated amenities will establish the Cabrach as a must-see in the north-east, bringing in new people and sustaining the local economy.”
Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, attended the unveiling: “The Cabrach is a unique community with such a strong sense of place and rich heritage."
He said the plans could open a new chapter in the Cabrach's "powerful story" It was particularly fitting that a distillery was central to them, given some believed the area was the birthplace of Scotch Whisky.
Steve Harris, chief executive of tourism body VisitAberdeenshire, also welcomed the plans, saying: “Investment of this level in a new whisky visitor attraction would be a welcome addition to the tourism product locally. The story of malt whisky from its illicit beginnings to the global industry it has become is one which visitors from across the globe love to learn more about. Whisky remains a key driver for visitors from the UK and overseas to come to this part of Scotland and additional reasons for them to visit should be warmly welcomed.”
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