The Colony (Bennachie)

The Colony was a squatters' community on "commonty", or common land, on one side of Bennachie, a range of hills near Aberdeen, in Scotland.

[1] From the beginning of the nineteenth century common land in the parishes of Chapel of Garioch and Oyne on the east side of Bennachie became home to a community of squatters.

[2] A small number of families led a crofting life supplementing it by doing skilled work, such as dyking, quarrying and knitting.

Most of the crofts were built on land claimed by Col. Charles Leslie of Balquhain and Fetternear.

[6] Visitors to Bennachie can explore the Colony, including the remains of a croft which was excavated as part of the Fetternear Research Project in 1999.