clachan

plural clachans

1. ScotlandA small village or hamlet, especially in the Highlands or Western Scotland.

   ‘Now, Penpunt, you may tell me all that passed between you and the wives of the clachan.’

   1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

   2 more examples

   But if you looked south in the dusty forenoon or at hot midday, you saw the far-off glimmer of a white road, the roofs of the ugly little clachan of Kilmaclavers, and the rigging of the fine new kirk of Threepdaidle.

   1918, John Buchan, “The Rime of True Thomas: The Tale of the Respectable Whaup and the Great Godly Man”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, US edition, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, page 239

   Of the miserable Highland clachan, to which Sir Walter Scott brought Bailie Nicol Jarvie and Frank Osbaldistone for their meeting with the redoubtable Rob Roy, little or nothing remains, and Aberfoyle is now a bright and clean holiday resort, standing on historic ground, where the Highlands and Lowlands meet.

   1951 September, M. D. Greville, “From Glasgow to Aberfoyle”, in Railway Magazine, page 580