Archaeology Notes

Event ID 877649

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/877649

ND01NE 2 0820 1920 to 0930 2040

Location formerly entered as ND 087 197.

Badbea is now a deserted village perched on the cliff edge just N of the Ord. It was from Badbea, an eviction settlement, that some of the earliest settlers for New Zealand came.

Sutherland County Guide [nd].

ND 087 197. Badbea: The remains of a deserted township consisting of buildings and enclosures in various states of dilapidation. A modern monument, erected in 1911, commemorates the former inhabitants of Badbea.

Visited by OS (W D J), 30 May 1960.

(ND 087 197) Badbea (NAT)

OS 6" map, (1964)

Badbea is a deserted township signposted as a historic site and viewpoint. It comprises the ruins of sixteen buildings, several remaining to gable height, which range from 30.0 by 4.5m to 7.0 by 4.5m. There are also a number of enclosures, a network of field walls, but no recognisable corn-drying kilns.

A monument at the site, erected in 1911, lists the former inhabitants of Badbea; one person it is stated was born there in 1806, and there was one tenant remaining in 1911. A plaque recently set up at the approach to the township states that it was settled by "twelve families whose homes in Sutherland had been destroyed during the Highland Clearances".

Visited by OS (N K B), 8 November 1982.

A township, comprising fifteen roofed buildings, four of which are long buildings, three unroofed buildings, twenty enclosures and field walls, is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet xliv).

Twenty four unroofed buildings and eleven enclosures are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10,560 map (1964).

Information from RCAHMS (AKK), 23 November 1995.