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Easter Aviemore

Kiln Barn (Period Unassigned), Rig And Furrow (Medieval), Township (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Easter Aviemore

Classification Kiln Barn (Period Unassigned), Rig And Furrow (Medieval), Township (Period Unassigned)

Canmore ID 116020

Site Number NH81SE 14

NGR NH 896 141

NGR Description Centred NH 896 141

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/116020

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Duthil And Rothiemurchus
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Badenoch And Strathspey
  • Former County Inverness-shire

Archaeology Notes

NH81SE 14 centred 896 141

A township comprising five unroofed, twenty-one roofed buildings and six enclosures is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire 1875, sheet lviii). Fourteen roofed buildings are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1986).

Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 5 July 1996.

NH 8944 1399 (centre) An evaluation was undertaken for a new road in July 2005 in the area of Easter Aviemore township (NH81SE 14). No archaeological deposits or features were noted, although the remains of a building were noted at NH 89457 13980.

Full report lodged with Highland SMR and NMRS.

Sponsor: Aviemore Highland Developments.

S Farrell 2005.

Activities

Field Visit (March 2008 - September 2011)

Measured survey, photographic survey and site description, together with historical research involving map regression and consultation of the Seafield Archive (NAS).

Srp Note (29 September 2011)

Easter Aviemore originated as one of the three shared tenancy townships of Aviemore (Easter Aviemore, Wester Aviemore and Milton). It lies at the N end of the modern village, but most of the original settlement and its field system, which extended E to the Highland Railway line, is now covered by modern housing. Fragments of the old township survive beside the Aviemore Orbital Path where the low grassy footings of a kiln barn (NH 89666 14265) and a small building (NH 89592 14274) have been identified, along with traces of rigs and field walls in fields to the W.

The township was re-organised c1809, when a survey by George Brown laid out six lots (or crofts) in the lands of Easter Aviemore, along with neighbouring Milton and Wester Aviemore (NAS RHP13927). The boundaries of these crofts preserved elements of the existing field system, which may have been partially enclosed by this time, but had survived in run-rig until at least 1770, when a Field Sketch of the Davoch of Aviemore recorded very narrow strips divided amongst the tenants, whose houses and barns were scattered in a line W of the road. (NAS RHP 98363). Around this time the Minister of Duthil parish wrote in ‘The Statistical Account of Scotland’ (1791-1799), that ‘Aviemore is in the extreme south of the parish, on thin stony soil. There are few enclosures, cattle roam free, except when crops are in the ground and the only exports are black cattle and sheep.’

The tenants of the new crofts lost their hill grazing when the estate made plantations between the 1830’s and 1860’s. The crofts were re-lotted c1863 on nineteen year leases and their boundaries were straightened, 1864 -1866 (NAS RHP 14030), perhaps associated with the new leases.

The 1st Edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, surveyed 1867-9, published 1875, sheet lviii) appears to show only remnants of the croft field system surviving, but the new fence lines of all six lots are shown in the 2nd Edition Survey of 1899-1903. The Name Book compiled for the 1st Edition Survey (1875) describes Easter Aviemore as ‘two farm houses and several small dwelling houses, one storey high, thatched and in fair repair’ and Milton as ‘a dwelling house and mill, one storey high, the former thatched, the latter slated. Barley and oats are the only ... ground here.’ The crofts continued to be worked well into the middle of the twentieth century.

The development of Aviemore as a holiday resort during the 1960s – 80s was initially focused to the S of the old Aviemore townships, but during the 1990s the town spread northwards and has now also largely consumed the settlements of Easter and Wester Aviemore, and Milton.

The archaeology around the Orbital Path was surveyed by SRP Easter Aviemore in 2008 and a full description is contained in the Easter Aviemore Survey Report attached to this site record, along with a detailed account of the history of Easter Aviemore and Milton. Survey plans and photographs are also attached.

Information from SRP Easter Aviemore, September 2011.

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