The Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SSPCK), established in 1709, commissioned the construction of a schoolhouse at Loch Croispol which was completed in the 1760s. As a parish school it was operated by the church, and Kirk accounts (Graham Bruce, pers. comm.) provide some details on money being spent on the building and repairs to a bridge (likely to have crossed the water course east of the school) in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries. The First Statistical Account of Scotland (1791-99) describes a schoolmaster, Mr. Thomas Ross, 'approved for his diligence and success', who ran the school with a roll of 45 pupils (Thomson 1799, 584). The account also suggests that the building was in the process of repair and that it consisted of at least two rooms: a room for the master and a school room (ibid 583-4).

The abandoned Schoolhouse is located at the southern end of Loch Croispol not far from the modern Balnakeil Craft Village and would have originally sat within the township of Cnoc Breac. It was constructed in the early 1760s and appears to have fallen into disuse in 1861.

 

 

The little known history gives a fascinating insight into education and society in the Highlands in the 18th Century and early part of the 19th Century.  The schoolhouse is an interesting site it’s in own right Loch Croispol School. Built in 1766 by the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, set up in 1709 and aimed to establish schools in the Highlands and Islands in order to promote Christian learning and to help stamp out Roman Catholicism and Gaelic to provide education for local children, Loch Croispol School. Built in 1766 by the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, set up in 1709 and aimed to establish schools in the Highlands and Islands in order to promote Christian learning and to help stamp out Roman Catholicism and Gaelic to provide education for local children,