Arlehaven Cottage, Blane Valley

In early 2021 I was reading Tom Weir's iconic book, Weir's Way (the 1981 frist edition), and stumbled across an old black and white photograph taken by Weir of an idyllic cottage. The caption below the photograph gave its name as Arlehaven cottage and its location as Blane Valley, just off the West Highland Way path near Strathblanefield.

Unfortunately the photograph isn't dated. Weir himself was born in 1914 and the photograph appears in his book which was published in 1981. Based on those two dates the date range could be anywhere between 1930s-1970s. My guess is it was taken within the latter half of that range.

I became intrigued after seeing the photograph as back in 2019 I walked the West Highland Way and couldn't recall the cottage at all. After doing a bit of research on Google Maps to try and locate it I ultimately discovered that in 2005 the cottage was derelict and roofless and by 2011 it was no longer there.

As a footnote to this short article, I'd like to thank Alan Campbell, who runs strathblanefield.org.uk, for pointing me in the direction of some books and records that provided the basis of the research. I'm hoping to dig deeper into Arlehaven at some point in the future.