Torridon, Alligin Shuas, clearance cairns, rig & furrow and structures

Date 1996 - 1998

Event ID 974388

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/974388

Torridon: Archaeological Survey

This area is defined by the old head dyke to the N of the crofts of Bellavista and Baclenbea and the once cultivated ground in-front of (ie S of) both houses.

At the N edge of the area, set against the old head dyke are three structures:

195a) A small square structure, now with a single-pitched tin roof is set against the up-side of the old head dyke. It has a door opening in the S-facing wall and is c3m square. Marked on the 1:2,500 OS map, abutting 195a) but on the down-side of the old head dyke, is a rectangular structure set at 45degrees to 195a). This was not seen during the survey.

195b) is immediately E of 195a) but on the down-side of the head dyke. It is a long rectangular structure aligned NNW-SSE and measuring c19m by c4m over walls c0.6m thick. The N part (c10m long) was a clay mortared, gabled, house with chimneys in both ends, and a central door flanked by a window on each side, but the walls do not survive to the wallheads. A tree grows in the NW corner of the house. MM records cruck slots in this ruin.

Abutting the house is a structure (possibly a byre) - c5m long - with a doorway with its stone lintel surviving at its NW corner and a window opening to the S. There appears to be a blocked window in its SSE gable. A further structure has been added to the SSE gable - with a single pitched tin roof. It is c4m long and only c3m wide, the front wall now being higher than the back wall to take the slope of the tin roof. There is a door in its NW corner.

195c) is to the E of 195b). Aligned WNW-ESE, it consists of what was probably originally a clay-mortared, gabled, house with chimneys in both gables (now hidden by fallen rubble), c10m by c5m over walls c0.8m thick standing to to its front and back wallheads. The doorway is flanked by a window to either side. The remains of a cruck slot is clearly seen just inside the door on the left front wall. Abutting the structure to the W is a c5m square addition with a doorway just E of centre and a possible window in the W gable.

A drystone dyke creates a small enclosure against the back of 195c). A dyke from 195b) to the old head dyke forms the rear enclosure for that structure.

The land immediately S of these structures has been cultivated in the past. It then drops down over outcropping rock to the lower, larger rigs/fields, with clearance cairns, consumption clearance mounds, long thin old rigs evident, some of which have rough drstone dykes along their lengths, within the now post-&-wired fenced areas.

195d) At NG83105765, by the outcrop rocks at the lower level, are the ruins of another structure aligned W-E, and measuring c11m by c5m over walls c0.7m thick, standing to wall head heights. The W part was a house with a doorway flanked by a window on each side. The window to the W has since been blocked up, that on the E is also largely blocked. A tree grows within the W end of the house. The W gable end is now curved rather than pointed (but that may have been its original form). Apparently abutting this, although any original gable wall has been removed, is a square structure with a doorway at its W end. The E part of this now has a roof formed as a single-pitch with its higher edge at the front of the structure.

(TOR96 195)

Information from NTS (SCS) January 2014