Warehouse

ND34SW 274 30006 41460

This farmstead may be Mercer's monument no.78 which is noted on his fig.88 (Mercer 1985), at roughly the correct location, but is cited in the text as being at ND 308 412 (ND34SW 163).

R J Mercer 1985.

The remains of this farmstead are situated in moorland towards the head of the valley of the Burn of Warehouse and comprise a single building standing on the E side of a garden enclosure. The farmstead is situated within a large enclosure, to which several other enclosures are attached. The building (YARROWS04 031) measures 13.4m from NNE to SSW by 4.6m transversely over walls 0.55m in thickness and up to 2.2m in height. The entrance is in the ENE wall, opening into the southern of the two compartments in the interior. A doorway through the W end of the stone partition leads into the N compartment, which is the slightly smaller of the two. Midway along the N compartment a pair of cruck-slots can be seen rising from a point about 0.2m above the present ground surface to a height of 1.5m. The slots measure 0.18m in width by 0.15m in depth.

The S compartment was probably a byre, with what is probably a central drain running out under the SSW gable, and its entrance is 1.4m wide. An outshot attached to the SSW end of the building measures 3.6m in length by 4m in breadth over grass-grown footings, and its entrance is probably in the ESE side. The garden plot on the W side of the building measures about 30m from N to S by 20m transversely within the remains of a stone wall. This lies in the NE corner of a larger area of enclosed ground outside the NW corner of which there is an irregularly-shaped fold measuring a maximum of 27m from NW to SE by 16.5m transversely within a drystone wall up to 1m thick and 1.8m in height. The face of a rock outcrop forms the NE corner of the fold, and there is an entrance 1.5m wide in the SW side, close to the SE corner. A further area of enclosed ground lies to the E of the farmstead and has two enclosures in its NE corner, each defined by the grass-grown footings of stone walls.

The farmstead is depicted roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet xxix), at which time the large area of enclosed area of ground to the W of the farmstead is shown as improved, but the area to the E is shown as moorland. The building is depicted unroofed on the 2nd edition of the map (1907, sheet xxix).

(YARROWS04 031)

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 13 May 2004