Altan Dubh

NB91SE 9 centred on 9850 1260

The crofting township of Alltan Dubh extends over a distance of about 2km from Loch Camas an Fheidh in the SE to beyond the public road to Achnahaird in the NW. Within its ambit there are sixteen unroofed buildings, several areas of lazy-beds, a mill, and a hut-circle (NB91SE 22); immediately outside the head-dyke of the crofts there are two further areas of lazy-beds and a group of buildings that may pre-date the crofting township.

The cluster of pre-crofting township buildings occupy a terrace at NB 9850 1256. It comprises seven buildings aligned from ENE to WSW which range from 2.3m and 8.4m in length by 1.3m and 2.7m in breadth, within rubble-faced walls 0.6m and 0.9m thick, and, where best-preserved, up to 1m high, elsewhere they have been reduced to stony banks up to 1.2m thick and less than 0.3m high (ACHIL94 168-171, 174-6). May's Survey of 1758 (SRO, RHP 85395) shows a township at this location with three buildings above the road and two aligned on the same axis as those described above.

The buildings in the crofting township are scattered throughout the township from a farmstead at the NW (NB 9784 1308) to a building at the extreme SE (ACHIL94 283, NB 9950 1198), a distance of about 2km. Sixteen were recorded, varying from small shelters and sheds to domestic dwellings. They range in size from 2.1m to 13.4m in length by 1.4m to 4.2m in breadth within rubble-faced walls 0.5m to 0.9m thick, except for two that are reduced to spread stony banks between 0.3m and 0.5m high (ACHIL94 163, 177). One of them is a three-bay cottage, bonded with mortar, standing 1.95m high with fireplaces in both ends (ACHIL94 172), and there is another of similar proportions, which was only heated by a fireplace at one end (ACHIL94 164). A small drystone-rubble pen was also recorded (ACHIL94 173, NB 9844 1272), measuring 1.6m square within walls 0.5m thick and 0.5m high, with an opening in the S. The low banks of what may be an earlier hut is visible, extending about 2.2m to the

W.

What may be the remains of a mill (ACHIL94 97) has been located on the edge of the seashore at the point where a burn runs onto the beach (NB 9877 1211). The site comprises a subrectangular terraced-platform measuring 8.8m from ESE to WNW by 6.5m transversely. A 6m length of bank runs along the edge of the burn from E to W on the platform, which may be part of the mill-building, and another bank runs ENE from the platform for about 10m on the N of the burn, which may mark the line of a lade, but no dam was located.

Several blocks of lazy-beds are visible within the crofts, the majority lying on either side of the road at the E end of the township (centred on NB 9906 1219). Two blocks, however, are situated outwith the crofts, one to the S which is unenclosed (NB 9880 1190), and another which, although enclosed in earthen dykes, lies outwith the crofts (NB 9850 1300).

May's survey (1758) (SRO, RHP 85395) depicts a township, comprising eleven buildings and two enclosures set between two blocks of arable, at about the site of the present telephone kiosk. The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Cromartyshire 1881, sheet iB) depicts forty-two roofed and eight unroofed buildings in the crofting-township, and the Crofters Statistics of 1884 and 1886 record the allotment of Alltan Dubh in 1831 (Baldwin 1994).

(ACHIL94 97-99, 162-181, 280-1, 283)

Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 20 June 1994

J R Baldwin 1994

Sites recorded during a survey of the intertidal zone and the coast edge (50m from the mean high tide mark) between the Rivers Ullapool and Culag.

Further details can be found in a report submitted to Historic Scotland.

Port an Alltain Duibh

NB 984 125 Rough rectangular structure.

Alltain Duibh

NB 985 125 Slipways, hulks, stone field boundaries, clearance cairns.

NB 978 130 Rectangular building complex.

Sponsors: Historic Scotland, Glasgow University Archaeology Department.

A Long 1996