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Field Visit
Date 2008
Event ID 871359
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/871359
NC27SE 23 NC 27936 71901
This milestone is situated in peaty moorland, on the N side of the public road (NC27SE 41) that links a slipway on the Kyle of Durness (NC 3708 6603) to the lighthouse (NC27SE 3.00) at Cape Wrath. Rectangular in section, the roughly shaped granite block measures 0.32m in breadth by 0.18m in thickness and 0.49m in height. The front face, which has been roughly dressed, has been painted white and the incised number three, denoting the distance in miles to the lighthouse, has been painted black.
The exact date that the milestone was erected is not known, but it was probably soon after the road was adopted as a public highway in 1833 and it was certainly in place by 1874, when it was surveyed for the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1878, sheet V). A local tradition that the milestones along the 11 mile length of the road were fabricated by lighthouse keepers cannot be substantiated, but it would provide an explanation why there is a variation in their respective designs and dimensions.
(CWTC08 241)
Visited by RCAHMS (AL, IP) 11 August 2008.
