Project:
The Nurse's Cottage in Clachan is an exciting opportunity for the community trust to deliver further affordable housing opportunities for Staffin.
Three years have now passed since SCT's housing, health and business development Taighean a' Chaiseil opened. https://skyeecomuseum.co.uk/latest/families-make-their-homes-in-new-staffin-development They were the first affordable homes building in Staffin since 1999, during a period when the resident population declined and did not match the rest of Skye.
The demand for the six houses built far outstripped the supply and SCT is determined to build more homes to support our young people and families who cannot compete in the property market.
The cottage was built by the Staffin Nursing Association in 1933, six years prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, and 15 years before the creation of the NHS. It illustrated what the Staffin community was capable of achieving as the building was entirely funded by local people fundraising.
It was designed as accommodation for our district nurses who worked in the community but importantly no medical treatment was provided in it. Instead, the nurses worked throughout the Staffin district visiting people’s homes, predominately on foot or bicycle. It was effectively ‘key worker’ housing, and the need was identified by our community, long before the term was even coined.
This was a period when there was an unofficial local health service which people paid a contribution for medical assistance. It showed the Staffin community’s resilience, determination and vision to provide for itself, with no national framework in place.
The Nurse’s Cottage was built by the Staffin Nursing Association on a croft, with the unanimous support of the Clachan and Garafad townships, document above, with an annual rent of £24 paid to the landlord of Staffin, the Kilmuir Estate (owned by Scottish Ministers).
In 1974, the last district nurse to live in the cottage, Joan MacPherson, moved out. The building later became the base for the weekly GP clinic and other NHS Highland services, before the new health centre opened at Taighean a' Chaiseil in December 2022.
In March 2023 the new base was formally opened by retired Staffin nurse Isobel MacDonald. https://skyeecomuseum.co.uk/la...
SCT is hoping to conclude the purchase of the cottage from NHSH in 2025. We are currently investigating prospective funders to support feasibility, community consultation and design work on the potential of affordable housing on site.