RootsChat.Com

I got this information from a friend, and historian who lives in Kinlochewe.... maybe the Scotts did not stay at Claona for a long time?  "The census return of 1871 has the family of Peter MacLennan, shepherd, as occupiers. By 1881 it's the family of Alexander Cameron, shepherd. The census return of 1891 lists Claona as a ruin."

Certainly it was in use as a croft for shepherd/s... I had an idea it was still being used near the end of the 19th century.... It was always too far away from 'civilization' to be used in conjunction with stalking... although the area still has masses of deer and goats (and eagles)... On an O.S map from 1843  there is quite an obvious track leading to Claona (which is named)... the track connects to other paths to Letterewe  and also Gairloch... It shows one substantial building and two smaller ones... only one of the small ones can still be detected... Certainly it is high in the mountains but, unlike the rest of the area it has plenty of grazing. It is just conceivable that the sturdy small Highland cattle could navigate the high track... there is only one stretch of height to get there... the rest is mostly downhill. Near to Claona there used to be a small community (3 crofts) at Strathanmore. The 'drove' could halt there before heading over the main hill? Must have been a lonely (but beautiful place). If you enjoy exploring ancient tracks and paths it is worth looking at this site.... "National Library of Scotland - Map Images" .... almost all maps of Scotland going back to very very ancient maps.... It can be fun exploring these old tracks which no longer feature on current maps. You can blow them up to explore in detail. Great Fun!!!

(from) Guide to Gairloch and Loch Maree By John H. Dixon, F.S.A. Scot.(pub 1886).....>There were at this time three brothers of the name of Cross, who were sons of one of the last of the Loch Maree ironworkers. One of them was a bard, who built a house at Kernsary, still called Innis a bhaird, or "the oasis of the bard." One of the bard's brothers, named Hector, who had become a crofter at Letterewe, was at a shieling at the Claona (or Slopes), at the back of Beinn Lair, above Letterewe, where he and other crofters grazed their cattle in summer. One day after the battle of Culloden (1745) a stranger, a young Highlander, with yellow hair and clad in tartan, came to Hector's bothie and asked for shelter and refreshment. When the girl gave him a bowl of cream, he drank it off, and returned it to her with a gold piece in it. The news quickly spread among the shieling bothies that the stranger had gold about him. Soon after his departure from Hector's hospitable roof next morning, a shot was heard, and on a search being made the dead body of the young man was found, robbed of all valuables. The murder and robbery were ascribed to a crofter, whose name is well remembered, and whose descendants are still at Letterewe, for from that time the family had money. It is almost superfluous to add that no steps were taken to bring the murderer to justice; the unsettled state of the Highlands at the time would alone account for the immunity of the offender. It afterwards transpired that the murdered stranger had been a valet or personal servant to Prince Charlie, and that he had gone by the name of the "Gille Buidhe," or "yellow-haired lad." He was conveying the gold to his master, which had been sent from France, and it was to meet him that the two vessels had come to Sgeir Bhoora, near Poolewe. It seems he carried the gold in one end of his plaid, which had been formed into a temporary bag, an expedient still often resorted to in the Highlands. A portion of the Gille Buidhe's plaid formed the lining of a coat belonging to an old man at Letterewe in the nineteenth century. Kenneth Mackenzie, an old man living at Cliff (now dead), told me he had seen it.

I keep trying to post here... not sure I am doing it right...I have walked to, and camped many many times at Claona..one of my fav. sites in Scotland I have many photographs and 'history of the ruin... it did exist, at least, as early as the early 18th century.. the area behind the main ruin (there are two) is very soft and verdant... originally a vegetable patch? Maybe animals were tethered there. There are traces of tracks..one main one West>Gairloch.. faint North
> Dundonnell ... and a very very faint one East towards the end of Lochan Fada which joins an ancient good track which goes South to Kinlochewe  Below the ruin there is an ancient stone 'path' which leads out into the Loch..your ancestor probably fished from there (as have I)..there are lovely wild brown trout to be caught   I will keep trying to post some of my images... It was originally a 'shieling bothy'... a shelter for young men (women?) who took Highland cattle to graze on the slopes of the nearby mountains...  There were originally two buildings..maybe one for men..other for women. There were, once upon a time, other families not too far away..but like Claona only their ruins remain..A tough life!    Best Garry