By Liz Fowler

THE NATIONAL Trust for Scotland has stepped in to save an ancient building with original mud and straw walls at Logie, on the outskirts of Montrose.

The 300-year-old A-listed former schoolhouse and church created a furore among national historians when it seemed doomed to demolition two years ago.

Local residents and the community council serving Hillside, Craigo, Logie and Dun, backed the protest.

Yesterday they expressed relief the building is now in safe hands, having been bought by the trust at a nominal sum from Craigo Estate.

The trust plan is the building will be rented out as an environmentally friendly, sustainable home, but only after a minimum £250,000 has been spent on total restoration.

Work is to begin in the autumn.

“The building is significant both for its construction material and its original form of a hall with two small rooms to the rear for the schoolmaster,” said the trust’s Sian Loftus.

“The fact that it is still standing today indicates the durability of clay walls, as long as they are maintained.

“But the building was abandoned at least 14 years ago and the neglect is obvious by damage in the walls and wooden floors.

“A central wall has completely collapsed and we’ve had to board up the building for safety reasons.

“But we plan to conserve it and refurbish it with a small new-build extension as a rental home.

“We have support in principle for a Communities Scotland rural empty properties grant so that we can let the property to the local market at a reasonable rate.

“It will certainly be a home with lots of character, and as well as restoring it as sympathetically as we can, we aim to make it a sustainable building too.

“We are really excited to be involved in this rescue.

“Angus is not a centre for clay architecture which makes the conservation of this building even more important.”

Following a visit to assess the building, architects from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland decided it a rare gem.

With original wattle and daub walls made of dried clay bound with pebbles and straw, now mostly covered over in harling and brick, and a roof that once would have been thatched, they calculated it must have been built around the turn of the eighteenth century.

Originally the Logie schoolhouse, the building was commissioned for use as a church in 1929 by John Lees Dutch.

Services continued to be held there regularly until the death in 1990 of Catherine Lees Dutch, last of the family and grand-daughter of the founder.

After her funeral the church was locked and the keys returned to the estate.

Neighbour Mike Maltman was particularly saddened that such an important feature of local heritage could simply be eradicated and has led the campaign against demolition.

He said, “The trust plans look very promising.

“We’ve had a lot of visits from people returning to rediscover their roots, who remember the building either as the church or the Sunday school.”

He added, “I am relieved the building is to be kept as it was, and not demolished out of hand.

“It is such an important part of our heritage.”