Archaeology Notes

Event ID 658824

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/658824

NG47SW 5 4146 7124.

1/4 mile E of the deserted farm of Lachasay, on a slight rise above the flat on the right bank of Abhainn Sneosdal, and some 25 yards distant from the stream at NG 4146 7124, is an earth-house known as Tigh Talamhain. The structure was discovered and partly destroyed many years ago when part of the entrance passage was removed and a hole was made in the roof. It consists of a chamber of drystone building converging inwardly towards the roof so as to form a beehive shaped chamber, measuring 5 1/2ft in diameter 3ft from the apex, which is entered through a walled and lintelled passage running almost due E. Of the passage a length of 9ft 10ins still remains. The outer part of the passage, which has been removed, is indicated by a hollow in the ground, traceable outwards for some 24ft, but as the level of the under side of the outer lintel runs out onto the surface of the slpe some 12ft 6ins from the existing building, the passage was perhaps a little more than 22ft in length when complete. It measures 2ft 8ins to 3ft in width. About 5ft from the inner end one of the lintels is placed 6ins. lower than the others, perhaps forming a check for a door. On the left-hand side of the passage is a recess-like cavity with a lintel above. Immediately to the N of what was the apparent entrance to the earth-house are slight indications of a hut circle, oval in shape, measuring 13ft in length by 10ft in breadth, with the entrance towards the underground building.

RCAHMS 1928.

Earth house as described by RCAHMS: situated 15.0m SE of a ruined building on the E bank of Abhainn Sneosdal. The hut circle noted by RCAHMS is not identifiable with certainty.

Visited by OS (C F W) 26 April 1961.