It is a fertile strath which has almost certainly been continuously inhabited since the end of the last ice age. It is the site of the remains of an Iron Age Broch, dating from somewhere around the first centuries BC and/or AD, and indicating that someone of distinction saw it as a good place to put down roots. More information can be found here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broch).

When the Vikings invaded and colonised the north of what is now Scotland we can be certain they too were present. The name Glen Alladale, running almost parallel to Croick is name of viking derivation and good evidence that they lived in those parts.

In those days there would still have been a great deal of native woodland in the area. Indeed, the name Glaschoil, one of the early settlements in the strath means Big Wood and there are records from the seventeenth century of wood from around Croick being exported for the, then, English Navy.

Croick at the time was of course home to a large number of settlements up and down the strath. These can be seen clearly on Roy’s Military Map of 1747-55, which his available online from the National Library of Scotland (see http://maps.nls.uk/roy).