Inside the abandoned homes across the Scottish Highlands where traces of real lives hang on

The photographs capture empty armchairs, cold stoves and old kettles no longer boiled. Fading wallpaper and single beds long unoccupied tell the stories of these Highland homes now long abandoned.

Photographer Angus Mackay, of Latheronwheel, spent lockdown exploring the empty houses across Caithness and Sutherland, which tell of those no longer there and rural life, as once known, now in decline.

He found himself in places deserted, but still full of emotion as traces of their former occupants remained.

Mr Mackay said: “I can’t go into an abandoned house without thinking ‘who lived here, why did they leave and why did nobody else come in behind them?’

“I’ve been blessed with a pretty healthy imagination. I visit all the rooms in the houses before I start thinking about taking the photos. I always stand and listen first.”

Mr Mackay said he always sought permission to enter properties where doors and windows hold on.

READ MORE: The ‘sadness and gladness’ of abandoning a Scottish island

He said: “The ones that really fascinate me are the ones where there are signs of human habitation, where there is still a kettle on the stove or there. There are five layers of wallpaper peeling off to show all the old designs.”

Exploring an empty house at Benacheilt near Latheron in Caithness “put the hairs up on the back of my neck”, Mr Mackay said.

The house belonged to the late Donald Alexander Mackenzie, who was also known as Bunt.

Mr Mackay said: “I was standing in the room and soaking everything up and on the windowsill in the kitchen there was just an ordinary snap-sized photo. It was curled up and bleached white. I held it up and there was nothing at all there. It had obviously been taken so long ago.

“I realised there were two photos stuck together and I peeled the top one off and the photo just appeared as fresh as if it had been printed yesterday. It really put the hairs up on the back of my neck.

“He was sitting on a bridge, which is actually just about 200 yards from where I live. But the crofthouse is actually around four or five miles away.

“I live quite close to what used to be the local tavern, so there is a fair chance that he was either on his way for a beer or on his way from having just had a beer.”

Mr Mackenzie left the house in later life to live in a modern house in Lybster, it is understood. Mr Mackay said the empty homes reflected changes in the countryside in Caithness and Sutherland - and across Scotland.

He said: “These houses are all around us. Over the years some of our government and farming policies have maybe contributed to this.

“It was easier for a farmer or a crofter who had an old house which needed electricity or plumbing put in to have the house condemned and get a grant for building a kit bungalow. Also, thing like estate land managers don’t employ as many people these days.

“There are lots of issues surrounding rural economics and land management and so on. I would like to get a wider conversation started on that.”

He said reaction to the book had been “phenomenal”.

“I think people get surprised by the emotional element,” he said. “They think they are going to be looking at a book of old houses, but it is more than that.”

An exhibition of the photographs is on show at Waterlines in Lybster with artist Jane McDonough displaying new works of the empty houses.

Abandoned, priced £25, is available from www.angusmackay.co.uk.