Cromarty Archive

Poyntzfield House - c1906

Poyntzfield House - c1906

Date Added: 30 September 2003 Contributor: Clem Watson Year: 1906 Picture No: 517

This postcard is postmarked 1906.

Albums: Jemimaville, Postcards

14 Comments

When I visited The area in 1987 Poyntzfield House was a resturant/ My mother Isabel Mackay worked in the Gardens there for more than a decade The house was owned by Mr & Mrs Hawker. It was a funny house a bit spooky lots of long dark corridors with a full size suit of armour standing in one. I shiver thinking about it now. Comment left on 16 December 2005 at 22:37 by Mary Mackay now Harrison
My mother Annie Macdonald was a maid in Poyntzfield House and worked for the Munros who owned the house, farm and gardens until 1936 when they lost all their money with the Railways in Canada. I remember there were 2 sons both army officers. Both had MG sports cars and a chauffeur who drove a Daimler for the parents. Certainly were the gentry of the time. My grandfather was their farm manager and my Granny did baking for the big house. My mother and father met here and thereafter went to Alness where my father ended up as a wood merchant. Comment left on 19 February 2009 at 23:59 by George Macdonald
I have some wonderful memories of holidays in the 1970's. My Aunt and Uncle owned the gardeners cottage and.her parents-in-law owned Poyntzfield. They were Barbara and Geoffrey Cunliffe. It was glorious there - so free and almost like a timewarp. I do remember some very strange goings on in the large house! Barbara used to bless the ghosts because they had lived there longer than she had :-) Comment left on 16 October 2011 at 03:21 by Karen Ireland
I certainly remember the ghosts! I stayed there one summer holiday in 1968 and maybe one more time. '68 sticks in my mind because it was at Poyntzfield that we heard the news of the Russian tanks going into Prague. Loved the house and the dilapidated harpsichord in the large drawing-room. Such a great house to explore when you're 14! Comment left on 21 February 2012 at 08:35 by Oliver Kentish
I am curious regarding any stories about ghosts - we had a family holiday there in 2004 and my 2.5 year old son said he'd been speaking to a girl with a dress and a hat (when described it sounded like a bonnet) who had sat at the window ledge of his room. For ages afterwards he referred to that house as Lily's house. Twice during the week members of the family were going up the main staircase, and heard one of us behind them so turned to say something...but when they turned nobody was there! Still a great house and grounds - would go back. Hope Lily doesn't visit me though!
Comment left on 24 September 2012 at 11:05 by F White
The stairs were often full of noises of children going up and down. I never encountered Lily, but in the room where I slept I saw an old lady, dressed in deep mourning, looking down at me. Oddly enough, I wasn't scared so much as intrigued - and a little sad as well. The scarier place, for me, was a downstairs corridor, (linking one of the 'wings' to the main part of the house, if memory serves) which I avoided if I possibly could. Not a nice feeling there at all! Comment left on 27 September 2012 at 09:40 by Oliver
Please does anyone know if there were 'evacuee children' living here during WW2 - either in the House itself, or the adjacent properties. If so, does anyone remember any of them - or a large black & white shire horse, who was a favourite of one child who stayed here sometime between 1936 - 1946?
Many thanks
Comment left on 01 February 2014 at 08:33 by Margaret
My grandfather Harold lived at Blinkbonny Cottage on the neighbouring Udale estate. When visiting as a teenager in the early 1980s I remember being told that Pontzyfield House was owned by an old film star? Also there was a ghost of a 'Grey Lady who was seen by the local children on the farm as she wandered up the track. Comment left on 16 January 2019 at 17:54 by Julie Hadfield
The couple who lived there when I visited as a child were Geoffrey Cunliffe, who was managing director of British Aluminium. His wife had indeed been an actress, under the name Barbara Waring. There was also the story of the 'phantom piper' im the dome at the top of the house, who was said to play before there was a death in the house. Luckily, I never heard him! Comment left on 17 January 2019 at 20:18 by Oliver Kentish
I hope the ghost wasn't one of my ancestors. I am hoping to visit Pontzyfield in June during a visit from Australia. My ancestors Hugh and Isabel Cameron were living at the Birks, Pontzyfield between 1810 and 1821 when some of their children were born. Comment left on 26 April 2019 at 13:19 by Carmel McMullen
I think my great grandmother worked or stayed here for a time in he 30s/40s, as the address 'Garage house, Poyntzfield' has come up on some searches. She'd have been widowed, and in her 60s I think, Alexanderina Mackenzie - nee Mackay Comment left on 10 August 2019 at 13:28 by Willie Mackenzie
My parents were friends of Barbara and Geoffrey Cunliffe and we visited in the 60s and 70s. Geoffrey loved to show the amazing curved door of the tower, I think in the library. Comment left on 14 February 2022 by Gillie Lomax
Thomas Urquhart McKenzie worked as a gardener at Poyntzfield but emigrated to New Zealand in 1846. I am a direct descendant of his.

He developed a large farming property in the North Island of New Zealand which he named Poyntzfield which is now government owned.

He and his young wife Eliza n�e Fraser had 17 children who all lived into adulthood.
Comment left on 13 February 2023 at 05:23 by Charlotte Stockwell
My family talked about Poyntzfield and the terrible flood. I really did not put any of the pieces to the puzzle until recently.

Eliza Fraser is my great grandmother.
Comment left on 21 August 2023 at 04:57 by Pauline Hanson
Form Goes Here