Muck, Leabaidh Dhonnchaidh

NM47NW 9 41901 78711

(Classified as buildings and enclosures and location cited as NM 4190 7870). Three unroofed buildings are depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire, Island of Muck, 1880, sheet lxxiv). Two unroofed buildings and two enclosures are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1975).

Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 10 December 1996

(Classification amended to farmstead and location amended to NM 41901 78711). A farmstead comprising six subrectangular buildings, a series of enclosures and a pen is situated in the lee of a low ridge overlooking Port an t-Seilich from the NE. The three larger buildings are probably those shown unroofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire, Island of Muck, 1880, sheet lxxiv), all of them still standing at least 1.2m in height and displaying rounded ends with squared internal corners. Though clustered together, the six buildings are spread to either side of a geological dyke, the two smallest utilising the dyke to form their WNW sides. The best-preserved building lies immediately to the E of the dyke and measures 9m from NW to SE by 4.3m transversely within coursed rubble walls 0.9m in thickness and 1.5m in height. It is set end-on into the slope on the NW, and the external face of the wall is battered. The entrance midway along the NE side and a window directly opposite are both now blocked.

The other three buildings lie to the W of the dyke. The southernmost measures 6.5m by 3.4m within a faced rubble wall, but is reduced to its footings at the NW end. It is divided into two compartments, the larger of which, containing a stone-lined drain, is probably a byre and has a blocked entrance in its NE side. Adjacent to its NW corner lies another building, but this is now no more than a damp hollow enclosed by rubble footings. The last building lies a short distance to the NW and is currently in use as a vegetable garden. It measures 5.4m by 2.7m within a faced rubble wall 0.8m in thickness and 1.7m in height. The entrance is on the SE and has a stone threshold.

The small enclosures attached to the uppermost buildings are formed by stretches of stony bank linking steep scarps and rock outcrops. They are probably garden plots or small paddocks. To the SE, where the ridge terminates at a cliff, banks extend out from the base of the cliff to form larger enclosures. These enclosures contain outcrops and loose stones, and do not appear to have been cleared for cultivation. A pen has been constructed against the WSW side of an outcrop within the southernmost enclosure and measures 1.2m by 1.1m within a bank of boulders (NM 41945 78663).

(Muck02, 129-35)

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG,AGCH) 7 March 2002