Field Visit

Date 3 November 1992

Event ID 740428

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/740428

RCAHMS Afforestable Land Survey, Upper Strathnairn

NH63SE 80 centred 6749 3249

Location formerly entered as NH 674 324.

The remains of this township stand some 400m SE of Ballone farmhouse on a terrace above the floodplain of the River Nairn. Fifteen buildings and five kilns can be identified, and two rectangular platforms may indicate the sites of other buildings. The buildings stand either on the terrace itself or on the ESE-facing slope above it; most of them aligned along the slope, while all but one of the kilns are situated to the NE and set into the ground as it drops towards the river. The buildings can be divided into two groups on the basis of their construction materials: seven have walls of turf, usually on top of stone footings, while six are constructed of faced rubble. Two buildings are too badly robbed to ascribe to either group.

The turf buildings range from 10.8m to 24m in length and from 4.3m to 8.7m in breadth over walls which in one case (USN93 165) are 0.7m

thick, but otherwise are spread to as much as 2.6m. Little survives

of them beyond their bare outlines; two (USN93 162 and 172) are divided into two compartments, and although USN93 165 is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire 1874, sheet xxxi) with a bedneuk, this is no longer visible.

The largest of the stone-walled buildings are USN93 177 and USN93 178, which measure respectively 15.6m in length by 4m in breadth and 16.2m in length by 3.7m in breadth within walls measuring about 0.7m in thickness and up to 1.6m in height. They form the E and W sides of a courtyard, with a third building, which is still in use, forming the S side. The E building (USN93 177) has a bedneuk, fireplace and windows, and at, its S end, part of a turf gable survives. The other building is equipped with an internal drain, which runs through the door into the yard. The other stone buildings are not as well preserved and display few internal features: USN93 163 is divided into two compartments, and USN93 167 appears to have had an open E side, suggesting that it may have served as a cart-shed.

The kilns all consist of a stone-faced bowl set into the slope and measuring between 0.9m and 3m in diameter. One (USN93 175) has a possible barn on its SSE side. At the N end of the settlement, on a knoll immediately to the NE of buildings USN93 172-3, is a group of four shallow pits, each measuring about 2m in diameter. Similar features have been noted close to other townships in Upper Strathnairn, and they are probably storage pits.

A settlement, named Cnoc Firikin, is marked here on a plan of Drumboy, 'part of the lands of Inverness Castle', dating from c.1760 (SRO: RHP 1841). Four buildings and an enclosure are depicted, but in a stylised fashion, so they cannot be identified with any remains now visible. The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map names the settlement 'Glenfirachan'.

At the time it was described as 'a small farm, the dwelling house and offices are one storey in height, thatched and in ordinary repair' (ONB 1871). From the evidence of this map the turf structures are earlier than the stone ones: only one of the former (USN93 165) is depicted, and it is shown as unroofed while five of the six rubble-walled buildings are shown as roofed.

This development from an informal layout of buildings to a more clearly planned courtyard steading is paralleled 1.3km to the W at Dunlichity (NH63SE 85). By the time of the 2nd edition OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, 1905, sheet xxxi) only two of the courtyard buildings, USN93 177 and the building adjoining it (which remains in use) were still roofed.

(USN93 162-181, 470)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB), 3 November 1992.