Balnagrantach

NH43SE 23 centred on 4917 3186

A township comprising six roofed, two partially roofed and two unroofed buildings, three enclosures and a limekiln is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire 1875, sheet xxix). Three roofed, one partially roofed and three unroofed buildings, and three enclosures are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1976).

Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 20 May 1996

The township of 'Ball na Grauntak' is depicted on an 1808 plan of the Davoch of Gartally (National Archives of Scotland, RHP 11954), which shows five buildings and an enclosure in the area now occupied by Wester and Easter Balnagrantach (NH 4939 3155), and another three buildings to the N.

The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire 1875, sheet XXIX) shows three groups of buildings, in a layout broadly similar to that surviving today, and described below. The OS Name Book (ONB 1871) records that Balnagrantach comprised 'two small one storey thatched farm houses with outstanding office houses they are all in very good repair'.

The remains comprise three farmsteads, each of one or two buildings with faced rubble footings and an enclosure. Two of the farmsteads cluster together to the N of Easter Balnagrantach. The easterly comprises a long building (URQ97 26), measuring 10.3m by 4.3m internally, lying on the SW side of a garden enclosure, and a smaller building to the ESE: the westerly also has a long building (URQ97 27) which measures 12.1m by 4m internally and is situated along the SE side of a yard. A second building, at the N corner of the yard, is overlain by a kiln-bowl. The bowl of the kiln measures 3.8m in diameter within a faced rubble wall and lies at the NNW end of the earlier building. The two long buildings (URQ97 26, 27) are depicted as roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map together with the garden enclosure.

The third farmstead lies some 230m to the NW and comprises a building (URQ97 30, NH 4924 3182), and an enclosure. The building measures 9.4m by 3.8m internally and has a midden outside the entrance, which opens into the enclosure on the SE. An external drain extends along the NW side and NE end. The building is shown as roofless on the 1st edition map.

A rectangular limekiln (URQ97 29, NH 4930 3172) is situated on the E flank of a knoll to the S, its walls still standing 1.5m high. The subrectangular bowl of the kiln, which has been dug into the slope but is now filled with tins and other domestic rubbish, measures 3.3m from NW to SE by 2.9m transversely. The rubble face of the bowl has vitrified. A wall extending from the S side of the flue is probably a windbreak. A fragmentary bank immediately to the NW of the kiln may represent the remains of a small enclosure or building. The limekiln is depicted on the 1st edition map.

(URQ97 26-30)

Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 2 September 1997

ONB 1871