Megan Boyd's House

Whilst on a journey north on a recent fishing trip to Caithness I stopped off at Kintradwell to visit the ruined home and flytying workshop of world renowned flydresser: Megan Boyd (BEM) who if she was alive today, could claim to have king Charles III (who was Prince of Wales at the time) as one of her many world wide customers.
The Megan Boyd story is a fascinating and intriguing one and is documented in the book "Megan Boyd: The Story of a salmon flydresser" and in the beautifully  produced cinematic documentary and hand painted animation film "Kiss The Water."
Megan passed away in 2001 and her Kintradwell estate cottage overlooking the North Sea has remained derelict ever since.
I left the A9 and walked up the track which leads towards the cottage. I had to cut through thigh high grass, and push my way through overgrown trees and bushes to get there.
When I arrived at the property I was saddened to see the condition of the cottage. 

Nature is slowly but surely closing in on the structure and sometime soon will totally engulf the house.
It will be lucky to survive another couple of winters.
The sad ruined state of the cottage is a timely reminder of the weakness and instability of human greatness and that the legacy and the important heritage of Megan's lifetime work is something that should be celebrated and recognised in the local area.
I concede that the house may well be beyond repair however the shed/workshop where Megan plied her craft and the bits and pieces of broken  furniture which lay scattered around could yet still be preserved and perhaps relocated locally and made into a museum or visitor centre.

Over the last couple of years discussions have taken place  about  commissioning an art installation in her memory and erecting a giant sculpture of one of her salmon flies at one of the gateways into the village of Brora, but as yet the ruined cottage and workshop is the only reminder of Megan's contribution to the social history of the area.