Archaeology Notes

Event ID 677357

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/677357

NN64NW 10 6108 4736.

"Sithean a Bhaile-mheadhonaich" is classed as a "motehill" by Campbell (whose text implies that he means a "moot-hill") but is "a simple level rath or circle in a natural recess" in which unbaptised infants were buried from at least the 16th - 17th centuries until c.1830. It lies

by the river between two birch-covered knolls on what was in 1888 the west part of Balnahannait farm but had been Balmeanoch. (Balnahanaid: NN 623 472; Balmenoch: NN 612 473. See also NN64NW 3).

D Campbell 1888

At NN 6108 4736 is a large conical natural mound on top of which is a circular hollow 8.5m E-W by 6.0m, surrounded by traces of a slight turf bank. It is said by the farmer at Roroyere to have been used as a burial place for unbaptised infants.

Though undoubtedly "Sithean a Bhaile-mheadhonaich", it is no longer known locally by that name.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (JB) 19 September 1975.