Lui Water

On south side of burn fan (Caochan Bheithe), four rectangular longhouses with stone clearance heaps. On bluff edge, a 4m-diameter kiln.

J S Smith 1987.

This township is situated on either side of the Caochan Bheithe, which runs into the SW side of the Lui Water, and comprises nine subrectangular buildings, a kiln, an area of rig and two phases of head-dyke. Seven of the buildings are grouped at the upper edge of the cultivated ground on the both sides of the head-dyke, which abuts three of the buildings (MAR93 218-220). The other two buildings (MAR93 221, 222) are situated in the bottom of the gully of the Caochan Bheithe at NO 0530 9206 and NO 0525 9197, a location which may indicate their use as illicit stills. The buildings are subrectangular with rounded corners and range from 4.6m to 9.6m in length by between 1.7m and 2.9m in breadth within faced-rubble walls 0.7m to 1m in thickness and standing up to 0.8m in height where best preserved. There are two farmsteads, comprising two buildings at right angles to one another with an associated yard in one case and a midden scoop in the other, both situated in the re-entrant between the two buildings (MAR93 216-17 and 218-19). The kiln (NO 0533 9226; MAR93 225) is set into the slope of a terrace near the banks of the River Lui about 75m NNE of the settlement. Its bowl measures 1.9m from N to S by 1.6m transversely within faced-rubble walls 1m in thickness and 0.7m in depth with an opening for a flue on the N and a loading area indicated by a level area 2.7m across on the S.

There is about 2ha of rig on the hillslope between the head-dyke and the river Lui. The rig, varying in width between 2m and 8m, has a low profile and displays a slight curve indicative of a reverse-S shape. The drystone head-dyke, in its final form is secondary to the township buildings, but there are indications of subdivisions (NO 0551 9212) or earlier phases of which one more closely defines the edge of the rig and indeed has been removed by cultivation at NO 0526 9220. The final period of head-dyke runs from NO 0499 9234, some 350m NW of the settlement, to a point 500m to the SW (NO 0566 9203), not far from the other township on this side of the Lui Water (NO09SE 8).

The township is depicted on Roy's map as Dalgirnich, which is rendered in gaelic as Dail Gainimh (Watson and Allan 1984) but does not appear on Robertson's map (1822) and was probably cleared with the rest of Glen Lui in 1776 (Watson and Allan 1990).

(MAR93 216-225)

Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 22nd June 1993

Two unroofed buildings are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1869, sheet xcvii). Four unroofed buildings and a head-dyke are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1972).

Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 23 March 1999