Culthibert

NJ61SW 21 6327 1113

New Mains [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1972.

(Location cited as NJ 6330 1114). Vertical air photography (Jasair NJ 61 35-88-019, dated 8 October 1988) has recorded the remains of a farmstead on a N-facing slope.

M Greig 1995; NMRS, MS/712/10.

(Classification changed to Cottage; Croft; Lade; Pond). The steading of this croft is situated 600m SSE of the modern farmstead of Culthibert (NJ61SW 30) and is named New Mains on the OS 1:10,000 map (1972), which depicts a roofless building and part of an enclosure. The building is a cottage, which measures 9.9m from NE to SW by 5.2m transversely over walls 0.6m in thickness. A fireplace can be seen in the SW gable, which stands over 3m in height. There is an entrance midway along the SE side and a small outshot is attached to SW end. The footings of an L-shaped range, with its open side facing ENE, are visible to the NW. This contains a byre in its S wing and a threshing barn in its N wing. The barn has a wheel-pit set against its NW side, and the wheel was originally supplied with water via a lade leading downslope from a pond to the SW. The cottage and the byre are shown roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Aberdeenshire, 1869, sheet lxiii), but the threshing barn was only added later in the 19th century (OS 6-inch map, Aberdeenshire, 1901, 2nd edition, sheet lxiii.SW).

In 1869 the improved croft land extended to just over 12 acres (c.4.9ha); by the end of the 19th century this had increased to about 15 acres (c.6.1ha)

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, RJCM), 28 October 1998.