Happy St Andrew's Day from the Cruck Cottage. We've enjoyed plenty of Scottish folk tales and traditional tunes beside the fireplace throughout this year. The cottage is such an atmospheric place to connect with Scotland's story.

Today is Scottish Museums Day and 2025's theme is Mighty Objects. For us, it doesn't get mightier than the cruck beams themselves. These timbers grew crooked and are arranged to bear the whole weight of the roof, rather than on the walls. Without our mighty cruck beams, the cottage wouldn't be here!

Thank you to everyone who came to help with the gardening and limewashing day. As a small charity without government or council funding, we rely on these volunteers generously giving up their time to look after this important piece of Scotland's history.

'The Old Roads' One of our volunteers, Willie Clow, reflects on his long life and personal connections to Torthorwald village.

Another Volunteers Week story... The @museumsassociation.org featured our chair of trustees, Sue Hughes, on their website, writing about her work volunteering at the Cruck Cottage. www.museumsassociation.org/careers/volu...

Thanks to everyone who came along to our Folklore of Butter Making day today. We enjoyed sharing stories of the Roucan Witch's strange knowledge of the kirn, fairies stealing milk, and of course making lots of butter, yum!

Looking forward to sharing the folklore of butter making in the cottage this Saturday. Among the many curious tales is a local story, the Witch of Roucan and her uncanny knack for knowing who was churning butter. Pop in and churn your own, (appearance of the witch not guaranteed).

The cottage has a new clootie mat! Thanks to our volunteer @tomtelltale.bsky.social who spent hours creating it to sit in front of the peat fire. Thanks to a kind donation of a rug frame, wool and tools, we've also got an ongoing project rug visitors can add to and create the next mat.

A Witch Hare lantern. Call in this Saturday 26th April to create your own lantern decorated with images from Scottsh legend. You can also discover folklore artefacts around the building which were used to protect the cottage and listen to some traditional stories.

You're very welcome. A nice reminder for National Tea Day - we love welcoming folk to the Cruck Cottage. We have open days throughout the year, but if you turn up at other times the sign in the window has a list of friendly neighbour volunteers who will be delighted to show you around.

Washday window

Cruck Cottage in Torthorwald is delighted to be the first organisation in the Dumfries area to launch a digital guide with Bloomsberg Connect. Free to download and use, it's a fascinating way to explore the cottage whether on site or across the world. Download the app here www.bloombergconnects.org

The cottage mirror gives a glimpse into a past age.

We love shining a light on stories of the cottage. Why not visit us to discover life in days gone by?

We were thrilled to be included in the brilliant new Slow Travel guide to Dumfries and Galloway. There are so many gems to explore and really connect with the character and landscape of the region.

You can see the remains of Torthorwald's 14th century castle as you pass through the village. Some of the stone in the Cruck Cottage walls may even have come from the ruined tower.

We're looking forward to lots of fireside tales as we celebrate our year of folklore. What's your favourite strange story from Scotland?

A visit to the cottage this morning by a lovely group from the North West Community Campus. They were very interested in the cottage, its history, and John Paton. There were lots of questions as well. The sun even came out for their visit, perfect!

A clyack or corn dolly by the hanging lum in the cottage. The Scots word clyack is derived from Gaelic cailleach meaning hag. These woven straw figures were thought to keep the spirit of the corn safe through the winter. We're exploring lots of folklore throughout this year at the Cruck Cottage.

Torthorwald Tales - Our volunteer historian Willie Clow found that the annual rent of the Cruck Cottage in 1880 was £1 15 shillings, payable to the Duke of Queensberry. It was home to George Campbell, Elizabeth King, and 4 children, the rent equating to a month's work for an agricultural labourer.

We continue to stand with Ukraine. We've been so pleased to welcome Ukrainian friends several times in recent months. We will always be in solidarity.

Torthorwald Tales - Stories of village folk. James Burnet, born 1774 in a cottage where his ancestors had lived since the mid-17th century. A barrel maker, fined by the Kirk for fornication, James was still mowing grass and milking cows until his death aged 92 in the cottage where he was born.

Something cheery for this dreich day... Here's our volunteer Bob playing tunes at our New Scots kitchen ceilidh in the cottage for our Ukrainian friends last weekend.

Something soothing for a Sunday. Last night or volunteers had the great pleasure of welcoming lots of our Ukrainian friends to discover some Scottish traditions. More of that to come, but here's Maureen Milton playing her lever harp at the start of the evening.

We were very grateful to receive some badges commemorating the centenary in 1924 of the birth of John Paton. They were kindly donated by a descendant of his. Paton's boyhood home was the cruck cottage next door, (demolished in 1948), before he became a missionary to the New Hebrides, now Vanuatu.

Exploring tales of witches in the local area - the Witch Thorn was located just outside Torthorwald and features on a 19th century map. Through 2025 our theme is folklore and we'll be exploring this through new interpretation and a great programme of events.

A view of the roof looking towards the bed end of the cottage. Oak cruck frame, birch rafters and heather turf showing under the thatch.

We're excited to announce our theme for 2025 is 'folklore'. We'll continue to explore the history of the cottage and rural life, but will also look at the many tangents to folk traditions, customs and tales around the cottage. Wishing you all a very happy new year and we hope to see you in 2025.

Happy Hogmanay from the Cruck Cottage. Thanks to everyone who has supported us through this year. We can't wait to share our exciting plans for 2025, but for now will wish you all a lovely evening and a joyous new year.

We're lucky to have had thatching maintenance done this year, but more to be done in the future. These heritage skills may be at risk, but we're keen to be supporters of these traditional crafts, a part of all of our heritage. Here's an interesting recent BBC article. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas. Thank you for supporting the cottage through the year. Wishes for peace and joy to you all.

We are delighted to have been awarded a grant from the New Scots Activities fund to celebrate culture and diversity, promoting integration. In the new year, we'll invite our Ukrainian friends to a kitchen ceilidh at the cottage and gather again to make traditional crafts to present to each other.

Hearth and heart of the home. A place to keep warm, cook, and share stories.

Many thanks to the Dumfries and Galloway Standard for the wee piece in today's paper about our recent festive weekend. Our local papers really support community organisations.

More from the Cruck Christmas - a Scottish thistle nutcracker, spices, and pudding charms.

Checking the ingredients for the plum pudding recipe in the cottage.

Even the laundry is getting festive.

For #ThatchThursday, a throwback to 2018 and the cottage's roof looking golden with a new thatch.

Over the bed in the cottage is a wee painting of Torthorwald Castle. See if you can spot the ruins nearby when you're visiting us.

This Saturday, 7th December, we've got the Cruck Christmas event with stories, festive spices, candlemaking, traditional toys, and mulled punch in the lovely atmosphere of the cottage. Pop in to discover the history of the place in this lovely friendly gathering. Pictures from last year's event.

Inside the cottage in 1962. Part of one of the cruck frames is visible with a storage space or sleeping platform inserted at this end of the room. This was an alteration to the cottage which you won't see today, another sleeping platform was in use in the 1970s when the cottage was last lived in.

Join us at Cruck Cottage for some festive cheer! On Sat 7 Dec, we have our family friendly day, with the smells of Christmas, beeswax candle making, storytelling and traditional toys. On Sun 8 Dec we have gift ideas from our local artisan traders. The cottage is open 11am-3pm, admission is free.

Many of our events feature traditional music in the cottage. This was a recent gathering of some local accordion players. It's a lovely place to enjoy some tunes.

Our cruck cottage is in the medieval village of Torthorwald. The ruins of a late medieval castle stand nearby, on the site of an earlier motte-and-bailey.

Inside the cottage you'll find all sorts of artefacts from everyday life in the past. There were quite a few botanical breweries in the area. Have you ever found one of these bottles?

It's chilly out there, so time to get the kettle on. This one hangs from a chain over the peat fire. Keep warm folks!

We weren't sure if #ThatchThursday was a thing, but it seems it is. So here's a picture of the recent repair to the cottage roof by the wonderful Alex Gibbons. A gap was appearing where there had been a join and Alex repaired it perfectly in the traditional method.

Evening events in the cottage, by the warm glow of the peat fire and paraffin lamps, are a really atmospheric experience.

We've only been on here for five days, but really surprised to connect with so many people. We're looking forward to sharing our stories and always enjoy welcoming people. Thanks so much to everyone who has followed us, it's lovely to meet you all.

Just to be clear, 'the good old days' never existed either -- things have always been hard, and we've got a lot of progress to be thankful for (not least flushable toilets!). Also, if your idea of 'good old days' is a time of less diversity, we've got bad news for you.