Mystery solved at oldest house in Inverness

A 343-year mystery has been solved at one of the oldest residential buildings in Inverness.

Dating back to the late 1500s, Abertarff House - located on Church Street - has intrigued heritage experts with the mystery surrounding a beautifully carved marriage stone on house’s main fireplace.

Perplexing visitors and historians for years, the initials AS and HP, alongside the date 1681, are worked into the marriage stone.

Now Black Isle historian Dr Jim Mackay has helped to solve the puzzle. Through his extensive research, Dr Mackay, who chairs the Kirkmichael Trust in the Black Isle, discovered that the daughter of a Cullicudden minister, Reverend Charles Pape, married an Inverness sea captain and merchant, Alexander Stewart – and they lived in what is now Abertarff House.

It is thought that Alexander married Helen Pape, and they resided in the house from 1681 until his death in 1720. Thereafter his son John, the subject of the antiquarian history The Letter-book of Bailie John Steuart, lived at Abertarff House until he died in 1751.

With the house set to reopen for the season today (March 29), the National Trust for Scotland, whose team has looked after the building since 1963, said they are grateful to Dr Mackay for the discovery.

Gail Cleaver, the National Trust for Scotland’s operations manager for Culloden, Abertarff House and Hugh Miller’s Cottage, said: “We are grateful to Dr Mackay who has helped us to solve a puzzle more than 300 years old, adding further colour to the history of this significant building and the stories we share with our visitors.

“As Scotland’s largest conservation charity, we are privileged to protect, care for and share the heritage of places like Abertarff House, which has witnessed huge moments in our country’s history: the Covenanters’ era, Jacobite risings and two world wars. An example of Scottish domestic architecture of the 16th and 17th centuries, it makes an important contribution to the historic streetscape of Church Street in Inverness and to what we know about the city’s heritage.

“We look forward to welcoming our visitors, members and supporters as we reopen the doors to Abertarff for the coming season.”

Abertarff House, which is, reopens to members and supporters for the season this Friday 29 March. Ever since the building came into the Trust’s care just over 60 years ago in 1963, the conservation charity’s heritage experts have been intrigued by a mystery surrounding the beautifully carved marriage stone which sits atop of the house’s main fireplace.

Abertarff House is open from Friday 29 March over Easter weekend from 10am until 4pm, and thereafter Tuesday to Saturday 10am until 4pm.

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